This is a first since the start of the conflict. North Korean soldiers clashed with Ukrainian troops for the first time, senior Ukrainian officials revealed, the BBC reports. While the upper house of the Russian Parliament has just ratified the mutual defense treaty with North Korea this Wednesday morning, the first exchanges of fire between soldiers of the two armies have taken place in recent hours.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday evening that 11,000 North Korean soldiers were already in the Russian region of Kursk where, since its surprise offensive in August, the Ukrainian army has occupied a few hundred square kilometers. It is in this area that kyiv soldiers allegedly fired on Kim Jong Un's soldiers, as the head of the center for combating disinformation, Andriï Kovalenko, asserts on Telegram. In recent weeks, South Korean and US intelligence services, as well as NATO, have said they have evidence of North Korean troops' involvement in Russia's war.
“We see an increase in the number of North Koreans near the front but no increase in the reaction of our partners,” Volodymyr Zelensky lamented on Monday. According to him, these “first battles with North Korea open a new chapter of instability in the world”. For its part, however, Seoul declared that it “does not believe that troops from the two sides are engaged in direct combat”, but that there was an “incident” involving a small number of North Korean soldiers ” near the front line.
The fact remains that Russia and North Korea have become considerably closer since the start of the invasion of Ukraine. Pyongyang is accused by kyiv and the West of supplying shells and missiles to the Russian military. In exchange, North Korea could benefit from technologies that will help it strengthen its nuclear arsenal.
“They wear Russian uniforms”
During a several-day visit to Russia, during which she was received on Monday by Vladimir Putin, the head of North Korean diplomacy Choe Son-hui promised that her country would remain alongside its partner until “on Victory Day” in Ukraine. Late last month, Seoul summoned the Russian ambassador, demanding the “immediate withdrawal” of North Korean troops from Ukraine. She also warned that she was considering directly supplying weapons to Ukraine.
For now, most North Korean soldiers are said to be undergoing training. “They wear Russian uniforms, undergo tactical training and are deployed under different commands of the Russian army on the front lines,” said a Ukrainian official, estimating that in the long term it was likely that five units, each composed of Around 3,000 soldiers are deployed on the battlefield. A hard blow for the Ukrainian forces who are struggling to recruit new forces to fight on the front.
However, collaboration between North Korean and Russian forces does not yet seem fully developed if we are to believe a video broadcast by Ukrainian military secret services on social networks of a Russian soldier captured by Ukrainian forces. This information should be taken with caution and cannot be independently verified.
The soldier said members of his unit and 10 North Korean soldiers were taken into the forest to dig trenches and given warm clothing and food. “During the assault, the Koreans started shooting at us”then declared the Russian soldier whose name was not revealed. “We tried to explain to them where to aim, but I think they shot two of our people.” “I decided it was better to surrender to this situation than to be killed by our own bullet,” he adds.
