Ukrainian soldiers battled North Korean troops along the Russian border on Monday, the first skirmish since the foreign fighters were deployed to help Moscow’s forces in Kursk, officials said.
Andriy Kovalenko, of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, claimed that some of the 10,000 North Korean troops sent to Russia are now active in Kursk, where Kyiv holds several cities after mounting a surprise counter-invasion earlier this year.
“The first North Korean troops have already come under fire in the Kursk region,” Kovalenko wrote on Telegram without elaborating further.
Kovalenko’s claim comes just days after US, NATO and South Korean intelligence warned that North Korean troops have already been deployed to fight along the frontlines after a brief sting of training in Russia.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin specifically warned that Russia would use the Pyongyang soldiers in Kursk after Moscow suffered a humiliating setback in the region following Ukraine’s incursion in August.
Moscow has had trouble re-capturing its territory, with Kyiv’s forces still maintaining control of Sudzha, a critical transportation hub in western Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was being briefed about the Kursk situation, noting that his troops will take on all foes in the region.
“We are working and we will be destroying the Russians, the North Korean soldiers and anyone who will threaten Ukraine,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukraine military’s commander-in-chief wrote on Telegram.
The presence of North Korean fighters in Russia was at the forefront of a meeting between South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday.
The officials said the deployment of 10,000 North Korean fighters to Russia should be a grave concern to the world as it would mean the Kremlin would owe something to Kim Jong Un.
“We are also deeply concerned about the possibility for any transfer of nuclear- or ballistic missile-related technology to the DPRK, which would jeopardize the international non-proliferation efforts and threaten peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and across the globe,” Cho and Borrell said in a joint statement.
The South Korean and European officials also called the presence of North Korean troops in Russia a “flagrant” violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions.
While neither Pyongyang nor Moscow have confirmed the military deployment in Russia, the Kremlin’s state media reported a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui on Monday.
With Post wires
