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WASHINGTON: At least 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia and are training there, the United States said Wednesday, warning that they would become legitimate targets for Kyiv if they engage in combat in Ukraine.
Russia and North Korea have boosted their political and military alliance amid the Ukraine war, with Pyongyang facing long-standing accusations of supplying arms to Moscow’s army.
But the deployment of troops to support Russian forces would be a significant escalation in that support and has prompted warnings from Kyiv and its Western backers, who separately said Wednesday that they would make $50 billion in lending available to aid Ukraine.
“We assess that between early to mid-October, North Korea moved at least 3,000 soldiers into eastern Russia,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told journalists.
The troops traveled by ship from North Korea to Vladivostok, and then went to “multiple Russian military training sites in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training,” Kirby said.
“We do not yet know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military,” but “if these North Korean soldiers decide to join the fight against Ukraine, they will become legitimate military targets,” he said.
North Korea’s state media has not commented since Seoul’s spy agency said last week said Pyongyang had decided to send a “large-scale” troop deployment to Russia to fight Ukraine.
Moscow on Wednesday refused to confirm or deny the reports, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova telling reporters to “ask Pyongyang” where its troops are.
After a briefing by the National Intelligence Service, South Korean lawmaker Park Sun-won said earlier that 1,500 more troops had been sent to Russia, taking the total deployment to 3,000.
Seoul says Pyongyang plans to deploy 10,000 soldiers to Russia by December, with international concerns escalating.
Germany said Wednesday it had summoned North Korea’s envoy to warn the reclusive state against sending troops.
“North Korea’s support of the Russian war of aggression directly threatens Germany’s security and the European peace order,” the German foreign ministry said on social media platform X.
Kyiv on Wednesday called on any North Korean troops deployed by Russia to lay down their arms and save their lives.
“We address fighters of the Korean People’s Army who were sent to help Putin’s regime. You must not die senselessly in a foreign land,” said a statement issued by a group run by Kyiv’s military intelligence.
“You must not repeat the fate of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who will never return home!” it added.
South Korea has said the nuclear-armed North is supplying Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine. The fresh alarm comes after the North’s leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a military deal in June.
South Korea will send a delegation to NATO headquarters in Brussels next week to brief the alliance on the situation, officials said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded for Kyiv’s allies to respond and repeatedly said a North Korean deployment risks further escalating and prolonging the war.
“It is important that our partners do not hide from this challenge. All partners,” he said in an address published late Tuesday.
“And if Russia is still able to make this war bigger and longer, then everyone in the world who is not helping to force Russia to peace is actually helping Putin to fight,” he added.
Experts have said that in return for the troops, North Korea is likely aiming to acquire military technology, ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, plus possible security guarantees from Moscow.
North Korea and Russia are under UN sanctions — Kim for his nuclear weapons program, and Moscow for the Ukraine war.
Kyiv meanwhile obtained significant new international financial backing on Wednesday in the form of $50 billion in lending that US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said G7 nations are committed to making available this year using profits from the interest on frozen Russian assets.