The United States revealed Thursday that up to 8,000 North Korean troops are preparing to fight in Ukraine, with Pyongyang also raising tensions with the firing of an intercontinental missile a few days before the American elections.
Citing American intelligence services, the head of diplomacy Antony Blinken indicated that of the 10,000 North Korean soldiers who, according to Washington, entered Russia, up to 8,000 “were deployed in the Kursk region” , in Russia, on the border with Ukraine.
“We have not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we expect that to happen in the coming days,” Blinken added during a joint press conference with the US Defense Minister Lloyd Austin and their South Korean counterparts.
Russia, which has equipped North Korean soldiers with Russian uniforms, has trained troops in artillery, drones, basic infantry operations, including trench clearing, “indicating that it intends to use these forces in front-line operations,” he stressed.
“Make no mistake: if these North Korean troops engage in combat or combat support operations against Ukraine, they will become legitimate military targets,” warned Mr. Austin, saying that this deployment demonstrates “how badly Putin’s war is going”.
He immediately indicated that the United States was preparing to announce new military aid to Ukraine in the “coming days”.
Especially since, according to South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, Pyongyang has supplied more than “1,000 missiles” to Russia and millions of munitions.
“Real climbing”
Earlier Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the Western reaction to this deployment. “I think the reaction to this is zero, it’s been zero,” he said in an interview with South Korean media.
Speaking of a “real escalation of the war”, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andriï Sybiga, argued that this should encourage the West to take a “strong decision” aimed at “lifting all restrictions on the use of missiles long-range in Russian territory”, which kyiv has been demanding for months.
Discussions between Americans and South Koreans in Washington on Thursday come as North Korea fired one of its most powerful missiles with the stated objective of strengthening its nuclear deterrent.
According to Japan, this missile belongs to “the category of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM)”, which have a range of at least 5,500 kilometers and are generally designed to carry nuclear charges, and capable of reaching the territory of States -United.
Pyongyang confirmed a “crucial” test, part of its desire to “strengthen its nuclear forces” and show its “rivals” its determination to “retaliate”, according to the North Korean state agency KCNA.
“Divert attention”
Chinese diplomacy said it was “concerned by the development of the situation” and Western capitals denounced a “flagrant violation” of UN Security Council resolutions.
Under UN sanctions, Pyongyang is banned from carrying out any weapons tests using ballistic technology
The South Korean army warned on Wednesday that the nuclear-armed North was preparing to test an intercontinental ballistic missile, or even carry out a nuclear test, before the November 5 election in the United States.
The North Korean launch “appears to have been carried out to divert attention from international criticism of its troop deployment” in Russia, Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in North Korea, told AFP. Seoul.
It came hours after Washington and Seoul called on Pyongyang to withdraw its troops from Russia.
North Korea has recently strengthened its military ties with Moscow, with the Russian president making a rare visit to Pyongyang in June, where he signed a mutual defense agreement with Kim Jong-un.
