Russian President Vladimir Putin has said it is up to Moscow how to run its mutual defense clause with Pyongyang when asked on Oct. 24 about North Korean troops being sent to Russia.
Growing intelligence reports from multiple countries indicate that North Korean troops are in Russia and preparing to fight in Ukraine. On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv expects the first North Korean troops to be deployed to combat zones by the end of the month.
When asked by a reporter on Thursday during a press conference at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, about satellite imagery allegedly showing North Korean troop movements, Putin said: “Images are a serious thing. If there are images, then they reflect something.”
He specifically mentioned Article 4 of the Russian partnership deal with North Korea, which deals with mutual defense.
“There is article 4. We have never doubted in the least that the North Korean leadership takes our agreements seriously. But what we do within the framework of this article is our business,” Putin said.
He also said that there is a NATO presence in Ukraine.
“We know who is present there, from which European NATO countries, and how they carry out this work,” Putin said.
On Friday, he told Russian state television that using North Korean troops is a sovereign decision.
“When we have to decide something, we will decide ... but it is our sovereign decision whether we will apply it, whether we will not, whether we need it,” he said. “This is our business.”
The Netherlands’ minister of defense, Ruben Brekelmans, said on Friday that Dutch intelligence had confirmed that at least 1,500 North Korean troops had been sent to Russia.
He added that they believed that the first batch of soldiers was a way for Russia to test the troops and to gauge international reaction.
“We expect the troops will mainly be deployed in Kursk and consist of mainly special units from the North Korean army,” Brekelmans said.
Ukraine
On Oct. 17, Zelenskyy told a press conference in Brussels that he had intelligence that about 10,000 soldiers of North Korea were preparing to “fight against us.”He described it as a “first step to the World War.”
Ukraine’s military intelligence service previously said that the first North Korean units trained in Russia had been deployed in the Kursk region of western Russia.
Speaking at a news conference during a visit to Rome, Austin said: “We are seeing evidence that there are North Korean troops [in Russia].
“What exactly they are doing is left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out.”
The defense secretary said U.S. analysts are continuing to assess the available information.
Turner urged the federal government to make it clear that North Korea’s involvement in the war would be a “red line for the United States.”
South Korea
Last week, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) released satellite evidence that it claimed showed North Korean soldiers are being sent to Russia.The intelligence agency reported that in early August, it detected Kim Jeong-sik, a top North Korean official, visiting the KN-23 missile launch site near the Russia–Ukraine front several times, accompanied by military officers to provide guidance.
The NIS then closely monitored North Korean military movements and, on Oct. 18, said that in early October, it observed ships transporting 1,500 North Korean soldiers at a time to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East.
The NIS said that photos and satellite imagery confirmed North Korean special forces’ involvement in the Ukraine–Russia war, with the first troop transfer conducted via Russian Pacific Fleet ships.
This marks the first entry of the Russian naval fleet into North Korean waters since 1990, the intelligence agency said.
