North Korean troops are already in Russia, US confirms

LONDON — The US has evidence that North Korean troops are in Russia, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed on Wednesday.

“What exactly they do” remains to be seen, Austin told reporters while in Rome. “These are things we need to take care of.”

Ukraine and South Korea have said North Korean soldiers have traveled to Russia for training ahead of their planned deployment to fight on battlefields in eastern Ukraine and western Russia.

Austin said Wednesday that the U.S. will “continue to pull this thread” to determine whether Pyongyang can be considered a co-belligerent in the conflict.

“That is a very, very serious issue and will have consequences not only for Europe, but also for the situation in the Indo-Pacific,” Austin warned.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a briefing Wednesday that U.S. intelligence has determined that North Korea moved at least 3,000 troops to eastern Russia between early and mid-October, where he said they are currently presumably undergoing a “fundamental species.” of combat training” at multiple military training locations.

Austin said there is “certainly” a “strengthened relationship, for lack of a better term, between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” using the abbreviation of the country’s official name: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Pyongyang, he added, is supplying “arms and ammunition to Russia and this is the next step.”

The development could indicate a strain on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s resources, Austin added.

“You’ve heard me talk about the significant losses he’s suffered over the last two and a half years,” he said. “This is an indication that he may be in even more trouble than most people realize.”

If soldiers join the war, Kirby said it would be a “dramatic move” and would show Russia’s “desperation” after suffering “extraordinary losses” on the battlefield.

The U.S. has not yet determined whether North Korean leader Kim Jong Un received anything in exchange for sending these soldiers, said Kirby, who also mentioned the growing defense relationship between North Korea and Russia.

“We know that Mr. Putin was able to purchase North Korean artillery. He was able to obtain North Korean ballistic missiles, which he used against Ukraine. And in return, we’ve seen at least some technology sharing with North Korea. Korea,” Kirby said.

Kirby said the U.S. is consulting with allies on “how we might respond.”

North Korea has denied reports that its forces are active in Russia or Ukraine.

“My delegation has no need to comment on such baseless stereotypical rumors,” a North Korean representative to the United Nations said this week during a session of the UN General Assembly, as quoted by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier this week about the reports: “There is a lot of conflicting information, and that is probably how it should be treated,” describing North Korea as a close neighbor and partner.

“This should not worry anyone, because this cooperation is not directed against third countries,” Peskov added.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers at a closed-door briefing on Wednesday that about 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to Russia so far, with about 10,000 expected to be deployed in December.

After the briefing, opposition politician Park Sun-won told reporters that NIS had information showing that “Russian instructors believe that North Korean soldiers are both physically and mentally fit, but they do not understand modern warfare such as drone strikes. ” The Russian instructors, the lawmaker added, “expect multiple casualties among the North Koreans.”

NOS told the politicians that the Russian army is recruiting a large number of Korean interpreters and training North Korean soldiers in the use of modern military equipment and drones.

NIS also said it has indications that North Korean authorities are taking measures to monitor and manage the families of deployed soldiers, including by isolating them and moving them to certain locations.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, meanwhile, said during a briefing Wednesday that Seoul “should not have played along with the Kiev regime.”

Zakharova urged South Korea “not to fight in anti-Russian hysteria, but to think about the consequences for South Korea’s security, which could lead to the participation of the Republic of Korea in the Ukrainian conflict, if such decisions are made.”

“The Russian Federation will respond truly harshly to any steps that could threaten the security of the country, its citizens, wherever the citizens may be. These measures can be very tangible,” she said, expressing hope “for the prudence and common sense of the authorities in Seoul.”

In what appeared to be a message to North Koreans, Chinese President Xi Jinping urged third countries not to get involved in Ukraine during his remarks at the BRICS summit in Russia on Wednesday.

“In the context of the prolongation of the Ukrainian crisis, China, Brazil and the countries of the South have created a group of friends of peace,” he said.

“It is important, based on the principles of preventing the spillover of conflict, its spread to third countries and avoiding escalation of hostilities and refusing to add fuel to the fire, to conduct an early de-escalation of the situation,” he added.

Chad Murray, Will Gretsky, Joohee Cho and Justin Gomez of ABC News contributed to this report.