South Korea's military says North Korea sent around 3,000 additional troops to Russia in January and February in continued support for Russian President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine. The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea has also been sending more missiles, artillery equipment and ammunition to help Russia. The Joint Chiefs also said they had assessed that 4,000 of the approximately 11,000 military personnel North Korea has sent to fight in the war against Ukraine have been killed or wounded. Separately, North Korea said leader Kim Jong Un observed tests of newly developed reconnaissance and attack drones this week and called for their increased production. It was the latest display of his country's growing military capabilities.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency and the Pentagon say some North Korean troops have been killed during combat against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk border region. These are the first reported casualties since the U.S. and Ukraine announced North Korea has sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost 3-year war. The Ukrainian agency said Monday that around 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded over the weekend during battle in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a Ukrainian incursion. The Pentagon press secretary says some North Korean troops have died in combat but didn't have a specific number of those killed or wounded.
President Joe Biden praised the cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the U.S. at countering what he described as North Korea's "dangerous and destabilizing cooperation with Russia." Biden spoke ahead of a meeting Friday in Peru with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. The talks come amid heightened concerns about North Korea's growing military partnership with Russia and Pyongyang's stepped-up cadence of ballistic missile tests. White House officials are concerned that Pyongyang could be dialed up for more provocative action ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration and the early days of his administration.
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh says North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and fight in Ukraine within "the next several weeks." Singh said Monday that some of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine. She says the U.S. is "increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk" region. It comes after NATO said some of the North Korean troops have already been deployed in the Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion.
By HYUNG-JIN KIM and KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press
South Korea's spy agency says North Korea has dispatched troops to support Russia's war against Ukraine. If confirmed, that could bring a third country into the war and intensify a standoff between North Korea and the West. The National Intelligence Service said in a statement Friday that Russian navy ships transferred 1,500 North Korean special operation forces to the Russian port city of Vladivostok from Oct. 8 to Oct. 13. It said more North Korean troops are expected to be sent to Russia. South Korean media, citing the NIS, reported that North Korea has decided to dispatch a total of 12,000 troops formed into four brigades to Russia. The NIS did not immediately confirm the reports.
