US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller expressed "concern" that North Korean soldiers, if true, are fighting on the side of Russia against Ukraine, and this is a “new level of despair”.
According to Vladimir Zelensky, North Korea has effectively joined the war against Ukraine on the side of Russia. Following this statement by the Ukrainian president, a number of Ukrainian media outlets, citing sources in our intelligence, reported about 3,000 North Korean citizens serving in separate units of the Russian Armed Forces. In particular, in the Bryansk and Kursk regions. In addition, Russia has formed a Buryat battalion of North Korean soldiers. However, 18 of them have already fled from their positions on the border of the Bryansk and Kursk regions.
In June of this year, for the first time in more than two decades, Putin visited North Korea, where he signed a comprehensive partnership agreement with Kim Jong-un, providing for assistance in the event of aggression against either side. On Monday, October 14, when President Zelensky announced the de facto entry of the DPRK into the war against Ukraine on the side of Russia, Putin submitted for ratification to the State Duma a draft agreement on a comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and North Korea, providing for mutual military assistance.
Back in early October, it became known that six North Korean officers from the ranks of the DPRK engineering troops had been killed. Three more were wounded and sent to Moscow for treatment. Later, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun said that the DPRK could have sent its troops to the occupied Ukrainian regions to support Russia's war against Ukraine.
“Considering this, recent reports of North Korean troop losses in Russian-occupied territory near the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk are highly likely to be true,” Kim Yong Hyun added.
That is, as we see, facts about the direct involvement of North Korean troops in Russia's war against Ukraine have been known for more than two weeks. However, there is still no harsh reaction from the West. And all this is happening against the backdrop of the visit on Tuesday, October 15, of Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov to Beijing, where he met with the vice-head of the Central Military Commission of the PRC Zhang Yuxia. The parties announced significant defense and military talks to strengthen ties and expand military relations.
TSN.ua asked retired Brigadier General and former US Defense Attaché in Moscow Kevin Ryan about North Korea's entry into the war against Ukraine on Russia's side, the role of China, and how this could change the situation at the front.
According to him, if reports from the front are true, then some North Korean troops are present among Russian forces and participating in the war, even though this number may be small, it is still a significant change.
“It is possible that North Korea has asked Russia to allow some of its officers to visit the battlefield to gain valuable combat experience that they could pass on to other North Korean troops. Another possibility is that North Koreans could be deployed to the Russian (ed.) “SVO” to service or operate equipment/weapons sent to Russia from North Korea. number of soldiers,” Kevin Ryan told TSN.ua.
At the same time, according to the brigadier general, it is unlikely that the involvement of the North Korean military in the war against Ukraine on the side of the Russian Armed Forces would have needed prior approval from China.
“North Korea depends on both Russia and China, but has often acted without their approval. Despite China's assistance in materials (such as chips or microelectronics – ed.) and other support for Russia, it has so far refused to send troops to the “SVO”, — Kevin Ryan believes.
Also on Tuesday, October 15, it became known that North Korea blew up parts of the roads north of the demarcation line with South Korea, which responded with shots. But this is not the first provocative action by Pyongyang. In January of this year, the DPRK fired at the “border”. However, the recent tensions between the two Koreas are an undeniable fact.
“Relations between South and North Korea have been tense since the Korean War in the 1950s. It is difficult to determine whether this event is related to the presence of North Korean troops in Ukraine, other than the fact that North Korea is responsible for both of these incidents,” Kevin Ryan concluded.
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