NATO Says North Korean Troops Have Deployed to Russia’s Embattled Kursk Region

Last updated on October 28th, 2024 at 06:09 pm

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has assessed North Korean troops have deployed in Russia’s embattled Kursk border region.

“Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in an Oct. 28 press statement.

Rutte’s remarks come just days after the U.S. Department of Defense assessed North Korea had sent as many as 3,000 of its troops to Russia.

At a Monday press briefing, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh revised the number of North Korean troops in Russia up to 10,000.

Asked to confirm Rutte’s assessments that these North Koreans had deployed to the Kursk region, Singh said, “It is likely that they are moving that direction, towards Kursk, but I don’t have more details just yet.”

The U.S. government initially said the North Korean troops arrived earlier this month for training in Russia’s far eastern port city of Vladivostok, more than 5,700 miles west of the Kursk region.

Rutte did not specify what evidence NATO has of North Korean troops in the Kursk region.

The Russian and North Korean governments have, thus far, denied North Korean troops are in Russia.

Claims of a North Korean troop movement in Russia has fueled speculation Pyongyang’s troops could soon join Russian forces fighting in Ukraine. A potential Kursk deployment could pit North Korean troops against Ukrainian forces without involving them directly in the broader war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian forces first invaded Russia’s Kursk border region in August. Russian forces have gradually retaken their Kursk territory, but Ukrainian forces still control a band of Russian soil along the border region.

“Should [North Korean] soldiers be used on the battlefield, this would mark a further escalation and highlights [Russian President Vladimir Putin’s] increasing desperation as Russia has suffered extraordinary casualties on the battlefield, and an indication that Putin may be in more trouble than people realize,” Singh said. “This move would have serious implications for Europe and Indo-Pacific security as well.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, responding to the alleged North Korean deployment in Russia, noted Ukraine’s use of foreign fighters within its own ranks throughout the war.

“Western service members have long been active in Ukraine,” Lavrov said Monday. “It’s part of the hybrid war that NATO and the European Union are waging against our country, and we are well aware of that,”