 |
| ▲ This Oct. 18, 2024, footage posted on X by the Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security of Ukraine shows what appears to be North Korean soldiers receiving apparent Russian gear. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap) |
 |
| ▲ President Joe Biden speaks with reporters after casting his early-voting ballot for the 2024 general election at a polling station in New Castle, Delaware on Oct. 28, 2024 in this photo released by the Associated Press. (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) N Korea-troop deployment
(LEAD) U.S. says N. Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to eastern Russia
(ATTN: RECASTS headline; UPDATES throughout; ADDS photo)
By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has sent around 10,000 troops to eastern Russia, which will likely augment Russian forces near Ukraine "over the next several weeks," a U.S. National Security Council (NSC) official said Monday, as President Joe Biden called the deployment "very dangerous."
A NSC spokesperson made the remarks after North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed that North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia's western front-line Kursk region -- a development feared to further escalate the protracted war in Ukraine.
"We believe that North Korea has sent around 10,000 total soldiers to train in eastern Russia that will probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks," the spokesperson said in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency. "A portion of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine."
Earlier, Pentagon's Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh made a similar statement that Pyongyang has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and fight in Ukraine within "the next several weeks," according to the Associated Press (AP).
"We are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk" region, she was quoted as saying.
South Korea's Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin plan to meet at the Pentagon later this week for their annual defense talks. North Korea's troop deployment as well as the allies' measures to address it are expected to figure prominently.
Singh warned that should North Korean troops enter into combat, there would not be limitations on the use of U.S.-provided weapons on those forces.
"If we see DPRK troops moving in towards the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war," Singh said, referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. "This is a calculation that North Korea has to make," Singh was quoted as saying according to AP.
Casting an early ballot at the state of Delaware Department of Elections, Biden made his first public comment on the North's troop deployment.
"(It's) very dangerous, very dangerous," he told reporters after casting a vote.
"The idea that Kamala's opponent's talking to Putin and discussing what should be done ... I mean, anyway," he added, apparently referring to former President Donald Trump.
Hong Jang-won, the first deputy director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS), confirmed that North Korea's deployment of units to Kursk is happening more rapidly than previously anticipated. He was in Brussels, leading a South Korean delegation tasked with briefing the transatlantic alliance on the North's troop dispatch.
"We (initially) reported to the government that it would take until early December, but it seems that both Russia and North Korea have accelerated their pace since the intelligence became public," Hong said.
During a phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday, President Yoon Suk Yeol described the current situation as "grave," noting that North Korean troops' actual entry into front lines could come sooner than expected.
Earlier this month, NIS said that North Korea was expected to send a total of around 10,000 troops by the end of this year, including some 3,000 troops already dispatched.
(END)
(C) Yonhap News Agency. All Rights Reserved
