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Ukraine said on Thursday that North Korean troops had arrived in the “combat zone” in Russia’s Kursk border region where Moscow has struggled to push back Ukrainian forces for months.
North Korea – with whom Russia signed a mutual defence pact – is already widely believed to be arming Moscow for its invasion, but troops on the ground would mark a new escalation in the conflict.
“The first units of the DPRK military ... have already arrived in the combat zone of the Russian-Ukrainian war,” Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence said, adding they had been “recorded” in the Kursk region on Wednesday.
Ukraine said the number of deployed North Koreans in Russia was about “12,000″ troops, without specifying how many were in the Kursk region.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a mutual defence pact with North Korea in June. Photo / AFP
The United States and South Korea say thousands of North Korean soldiers have been sent for training in Russia.
In Russia, President Vladimir Putin – who signed a mutual defence pact with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June – did not deny the reports.
“Russia never doubted that the DPRK is serious about Russian co-operation, we are in co-operation with our North Korean friends,” Putin said after hosting a summit of emerging economies.
The strongman leader then appeared to mock satellite images that purportedly showed North Korean troops on Russian soil.
“Images are a serious thing. If there are images they must show something.”
Putin was speaking hours after lawmakers in Russia’s lower house of parliament voted unanimously to ratify a treaty with North Korea that provides for “mutual assistance” if either party faces aggression.
The treaty is due to be fully ratified by the upper house on November 6.
‘Provocation’
Russia claims it has taken back a string of villages from Ukrainian forces in Kursk, but has not managed to push back Ukrainians out of its territory.
Putin claimed on Thursday that Moscow’s forces were “moving forward” there and had blocked Ukrainian “units invading the Kursk region”.
War-displaced people at a facility in Russia's Kursk region. Photo / AFP
Russia, under massive international sanctions, has hugely warmed ties with isolated Pyongyang since sending troops to Ukraine.
South Korea said on Thursday the presence of North Korea’s troops in Europe would mark a major escalation for world security.
President Yoon Suk Yeol called the deployment a “provocation that threatens global security beyond the Korean Peninsula and Europe”, after talks with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
South Korea, one of the world’s top 10 weapons exporters, has long resisted calls from its allies, including Washington, to supply Kyiv with weapons.
But it has hinted it could review this policy in light of North Korea’s actions and Yoon said on Thursday that Seoul would “take necessary actions in co-operation with the international community” to respond.
South Korea considers sending weapons
A South Korean official from the President’s office said this week that Seoul would “support [Ukraine] through defensive weaponry and if things get out of line, we could consider sending offensive weapons”.
Seoul has already sold billions of dollars of tanks, howitzers, attack aircraft and rocket launchers to Poland, a key ally of Kyiv’s.
In June, South Korea agreed to transfer the knowledge needed to build K2 tanks to Poland, and experts have said this could be a key step towards production inside Ukraine.
Yoon announced South Korea and Poland would sign a deal on a second contract for South Korean K2 tanks by the end of the year.
Duda was on a four-day visit to South Korea that will end on Friday, with a stop at Hyundai Rotem, producer of the K2 tanks, and at Hanwha Aerospace, South Korea’s largest defence contractor.
