US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said today that North Korean troops dressed in Russian uniforms with Russian military equipment are moving towards the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine, calling it a dangerous and destabilizing development.
Austin said this at a press conference where he was accompanied by South Korean Defense Minister Kim Jong-hyun and assessed that there is a very high possibility that Russia will use North Korean soldiers in the war with Ukraine.
Reports say that around 11.000 North Korean soldiers are in Russia, and their presence was confirmed today by European intelligence.
According to Austin, officials are considering what to do about sending these troops, which has the potential to expand and prolong the conflict in Ukraine.
Asked if this could encourage other nations to become more directly involved in the conflict, Austin acknowledged that it "could encourage others to take action" but did not explain exactly what that meant.
Kim Jong-hyun said he did not believe the Pyongyang government's deployment of troops to Russia would necessarily trigger a war on the Korean peninsula, but he said it could increase security threats in relations between the two Koreas.
There is a "high possibility" that Pyongyang will ask Russia for high technology in exchange for sending North Korean troops to Moscow to help in the war against Ukraine, and that technology could be related to nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, Kim said through a Korean interpreter. language.
The strengthening of North Korea's relations with Russia has set off alarm signals around the world, for fear of the influence of that cooperation on the expansion of the war in Ukraine and of possible types of Russian military aid to Pyongyang, in exchange for the involvement of North Korean troops in the Ukrainian conflict.
Austin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin needs additional soldiers because he lost a lot of his soldiers in the war. He pointed out that Putin has a choice in additional mobilization or in foreign soldiers, and that Russia has turned to other countries for help with weapons, among others North Korea and Iran.
The US estimates that there are now about 10.000 North Korean troops in Russia, but Seoul and its allies estimate that number has increased to 11.000, an official in the administration of the South Korean president said on condition of anonymity.
According to him, 3.000 members of those forces are already on their way to war zones in the west of Russia. He did not specify the locations.
In August, Ukraine humiliated Russia by invading its border region of Kursk with troops, where it seized about 1.000 square kilometers of territory, which it still controls. However, Putin said that it was the biggest mistake of Kiev in the war so far, which Russia still calls a special military operation.
Some of the North Korean soldiers have reportedly already arrived in Kursk, and a Ukrainian official told The Associated Press that they are currently stationed about 50 kilometers from the Ukrainian-Russian border.
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