Ukraine’s army has targeted North Korean soldiers for the first time since they entered the war on Russia’s side, Kyiv has said.
Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian national security council official, said the incident occurred in the Kursk region of western Russia. Ukrainian forces have occupied parts of the region since launching a surprise incursion across the border in August.
“The first North Korean troops have already come under fire in the Kursk region,” Kovalenko said, without giving further details. His comments will fan fears that North Korea’s involvement could drag other countries into the war, which is already the largest in Europe since 1945.
A video appears to show North Korean soldiers receiving uniforms and equipment at a Russian training base
Kovalenko said last month that limited numbers of North Korean military personnel, mainly engineers, had arrived in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine and that some of them had been killed. However, this is the first time that Kyiv has said officially that its forces have engaged North Korean soldiers in combat.
Washington says there are 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia, while South Korea and Ukraine say there at least 12,000. They are not yet believed to have crossed over into Ukraine, a move that would mark another dramatic escalation in the war. President Zelensky has criticised the West over what he says is its muted response to North Korea’s military support for Russia.
António Guterres, the head of the United Nations, said on Sunday that the deployment of North Korean troops to combat zones would be “a very dangerous escalation” that could lead to the “internationalisation” of the conflict.
Russia and North Korea, former Cold War allies, signed a mutual defence pact during President Putin’s visit to Pyongyang for talks with Kim Jong-un in June. Putin has not denied that North Korean soldiers are fighting on Russia’s side.
Meanwhile, Putin met with Choe Son-hui, North Korea’s foreign minister, in the Kremlin on Monday after she arrived in the country almost a week ago.
A video showed the pair shaking hands for a full minute before Putin noted that their meeting was taking place on Russia’s National Unity Day. Chloe conveyed “sincere, warm, comradely greetings” from Kim Jong-un.
Putin met with Choe Son-hui, North Korea’s foreign minister, on Monday
MIKHAIL TERESHCHENKO/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
There are concerns in Seoul that Russia could provide North Korea with military assistance on the Korean peninsula, where tensions have been rising in recent weeks.
Each North Korean soldier fighting in Russia is receiving a monthly wage of about $2,000, a vast sum for the impoverished east Asian state, according to a South Korean intelligence report. Moscow is also thought to have supplied the Kim regime with about 600,000 tonnes of rice to help it cover shortfalls in food production.
Putin and Kim met in Pyongyang in June to sign a mutual defence pact
VLADIMIR SMIRNOV/GETTY IMAGES
The Kremlin may also be sharing missile technology with Pyongyang in return for its military support. Last week North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile called Hwasong-19 that could potentially hit the United States. The move came shortly before Pyongyang accused Seoul and Washington of plotting a nuclear strike on North Korea.
Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, arrived in South Korea on Monday for talks with Kim Yong-hyun, the defence minister. Without giving details, Borrell said Seoul and the EU were seeking to take defence co-operation to the “next level”.
Kyiv has accused Google of publishing the locations of Ukrainian military systems in its updated online maps. “We are contacting them to quickly fix this, but it’s the weekend and they don’t have time for this. The Russians are already actively distributing these photos,” Kovalenko said. Google has since said it is working to “rectify” the situation.