US defence secretary says evidence shows North Korea has sent troops to Russia

The US defence secretary has said there is evidence that North Korea has sent troops to Russia, calling it a “very, very serious issue” if they join the war in Ukraine on Moscow’s side and warning of possible consequences.

“We are seeing evidence that there are North Korean troops” that have gone to Russia, Lloyd Austin told reporters during a visit to Rome. “What exactly they’re doing — left to be seen.

“If they’re co-belligerents, their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf, that is a very, very serious issue, and it will have impacts not only in Europe, it will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific.”

He called it a “next step” after the North provided Russia with arms, and said Pyongyang could face consequences for aiding Russia directly. He did not provide details, saying analysts were assessing the situation.

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At the White House later on Wednesday, national security spokesman John Kirby said the US believes at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers travelled by ship to Vladivostok, Russia’s largest Pacific port, in early to mid-October.

“These soldiers then travelled onward to multiple Russian military training sites in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training,” Mr Kirby said.

“We do not yet know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military, but this is certainly a highly concerning probability.”

Mr Kirby said they could go to western Russian and then engage in combat against Ukraine’s forces.

South Korea’s spy chief earlier told legislators that 3,000 North Korean troops are in Russia receiving training on drones and other equipment before being deployed to battlefields in Ukraine.

The US had not previously formally confirmed North Korea’s reported troop dispatch.

South Korean intelligence first publicised reports that the Russian navy had taken 1,500 North Korean special warfare troops to Russia this month, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korean soldiers were being prepared to join invading Russian forces.

Russia and North Korea have denied the troop movements. They have boosted their co-operation in the past two years and in June they signed a major defence deal requiring both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked.

South Korean officials are concerned that Russia may reward North Korea by giving it sophisticated weapons that could boost its nuclear and missile programmes that target South Korea. Seoul said on Tuesday that it would consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response to the reported troop dispatch.

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte on Tuesday said North Korea sending troops to Ukraine would mark a “significant escalation”, and added that he had asked South Korea’s president to send experts to Brussels next week to brief the military alliance.

On Wednesday, South Korean National Intelligence Service director Cho Tae-yong told legislators that another 1,500 North Korean troops have entered Russia, according to legislator Park Sunwon, who attended Mr Cho’s closed-door briefing.

Mr Cho told legislators his agency had assessed that North Korea aims to deploy a total of 10,000 troops to Russia by December, reporters were told.

Legislator Lee Seong Kweun said the NIS found that the Russian military is teaching the North Korean soldiers how to use military equipment such as drones.

Mr Lee cited the NIS chief as saying Russian instructors have high opinions of the morale and physical strength of the North Korean soldiers but think they will eventually suffer heavy causalities because they lack an understanding of modern warfare.

Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate head, Kyrylo Budanov, told online military news outlet the War Zone on Tuesday that North Korean troops were to arrive to Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday to help Russian troops fighting off a Ukrainian incursion.

Last week, South Korea’s spy agency said North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.

Reports that the North is sending troops to Russia stoked security jitters in South Korea. It has shipped humanitarian and financial support to Ukraine, but it has so far avoided directly supplying arms in line with its policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflicts.

North Korea has 1.2 million troops, one of the largest standing armies in the world, but it has not fought in large-scale conflicts since the 1950-53 Korean War. Experts question how much North Korean troops would help Russia, citing a shortage of battle experience.

Experts say North Korea wants Russia’s economic support and its help to modernise the North’s outdated conventional weapons systems as well as its high-tech weapons technology transfers.