Officials say North Korea has sent troops to Russia. What would this mean for the war with Ukraine?

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — American and South Korean officials said Wednesday there are indications that North Korea has sent troops to Russia, leading to a possible escalation of the nearly three-year conflict War with Ukraine.

If the soldiers’ goal is to fight with Russia in Ukraine, it would be the first time a third country has intervened in the war. Other countries on both sides of the divide have sent military aid, including weapons and training: Iran has supplied Russia with dronesand western nations have supplied Ukraine with modern weapons and financial and humanitarian assistance.

South Korea’s intelligence chief told lawmakers there were 3,000 North Korean troops were trained in the use of equipment, including drones, before being sent to fight in Ukraine. United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told reporters During a visit to Rome, he said “we see evidence that there are North Korean troops” who have gone to Russia.

“What exactly they do remains to be seen,” Austin said. Neither Austin nor South Korean intelligence director Cho Tae-yong provided details about how they knew about the North Korean troops, and there are many questions about the impact of North Korean involvement.

What do we know about North Korean troops?

North Korean troops arrived in Russia’s Kursk region as early as Wednesday to help Russian troops repel an incursion on the Ukrainian border, Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, told online military news agency The War Zone on Tuesday.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters On Monday it was announced that North Korean officers and technical personnel had already been spotted in Russian-occupied territories. He didn’t specify when.

“I think they first sent officers to assess the situation before deploying troops,” Zelensky said. He warned that the involvement of a third country could escalate the conflict into a world war. Austin said it would be a “very, very serious problem” if Pyongyang actually entered the war on Russia’s side.

What is Ukraine doing?

Ukraine is preparing as if a fight against North Korea on its territory was inevitable.

A Invasion of 10,000 North Korean soldiersWhat both Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence agencies have claimed “could significantly destabilize Ukraine’s defenses there and significantly accelerate the advance of Russian forces,” said Glib Voloskyi, an analyst at the Ukrainian think tank Come Back Alive Initiatives Center.

The Ukrainian project “I Want to Live,” a hotline calling on Russian soldiers to surrender, released a video in Korean on Wednesday calling on North Korean soldiers to surrender.

“We demand the soldiers of the Korean People’s Army who were sent to support the Putin regime. They shouldn’t die senselessly on someone else’s land. There is no need to repeat the fate of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who will never return home!”

How does the West react?

Zelensky told reporters on Monday that the European Union and the United States had been cautious in publicly confronting North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia, describing their reactions as “very cautious.”

German and British officials also weighed in, with South Korea suggesting it could support Ukraine with military weapons if North Korea’s involvement was confirmed.

“We don’t even know whether we are talking about 1,500 or 12,000 and what kind of soldiers will come to Russia and where and against them,” said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. “It’s a kind of escalation and it shows us a very important, very important aspect. International conflicts are approaching very quickly.”

British Defense Secretary John Healey said there were “not only concerns about the possibility of an escalation of the conflict in Europe. There is also an inextricable connection with security concerns in the Indo-Pacific.”

Why does Russia need North Korea?

North Korea and Russia, both in separate confrontations with the West, have deepened military cooperation in the past two years. In June, she signed a defense treaty Both countries must provide military assistance if the other is attacked.

For analysts, the introduction of troops would be a sign that the The war is not going as Russia planned.

“I think Ukraine is wearing down the Russian army as we speak. If your war is going well, you don’t get thousands of soldiers from North Korea,” said Justin Crump, a former British tank commander and head of Sibylline, a strategic consulting firm. “You don’t need them.”

North Korea has already sent over 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpile. These missiles are being actively used against Ukrainian targets, officials in Kiev say.

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Associated Press reporters Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov contributed. Danica Kirka contributed from London.