Ukraine has engaged militarily for the first time with North Korean forces deployed to support Russia in its ongoing war with its neighbor, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday in a nightly speech.
Zelenskyy did not elaborate on the involvement but warned of what he said was Russia’s intention to escalate the nearly 1,000-day-old war.
Kyiv officials said Ukrainian troops fired artillery at North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk border region.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (Photo by Thierry Monasse/Getty, left | Korean Central News Agency, right)
“Terror, unfortunately, can spread like a virus when we don’t find enough counteraction. Now our counteraction must be enough, strong enough. The first battle with North Korean soldiers has opened a new chapter of instability in the world,” Zelenskyy said. nightly video address which is a thank you allies of Ukraine around the world.
“Together with the world, we must do everything so that this Russian move to escalate the war with real escalation fails. Both for Russia and for North Korea.”
South Korea’s Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that more than 10,000 North Korean troops had arrived in Russia, with a “significant number” in frontline areas, including the Kursk region where Ukrainian forces invaded in August.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told South Korean state television that there was “minor engagement” with North Korean forces, per Reuters. The report, citing an interview, quoted Umerov as saying that the involvement was small and not yet systematic in terms of the mobilization of soldiers.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is shown during an artillery exercise on March 7, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
Umerov reportedly said he expected five North Korean units, each consisting of about 3,000 soldiers, to be sent to the Kursk region. North Korean soldiers were mixed with Russian troops and were not identified in their uniforms, Umerov was quoted as saying, according to the Associated Press.
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Russia reportedly has 1.3 million active soldiers with another 2 million in reserve. Russia is now seeing the highest number of casualties than at any other time since the war began, with around 1,200 casualties reported a day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week. Despite the high number of casualties, there was no end in sight to the war, confirming early concerns that it would be a war of attrition.
Zelenskyy has sounded the alarm that the new deployment of North Korean troops in Russia will not only cause problems for Ukraine but also bring into question the stability and security of countries in Asia that are allied with the West.
“North Korea’s actions are not random,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with South Korea’s public broadcasting network KBS on Thursday. “They have strategic goals.”
“These actions are not coincidental. They want Russian support in return,” he added in a comment also posted to his social media account on X.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy (Christoph Soeder/Pool via AP/File)
Zelenskyy called for South Korea to take a bigger role in the conflict and said South Korea has promised to send a team of specialists to Ukraine, where they will collaborate on defense capabilities, including air defense, as North Korea also supplies Russia. with cannons and missiles.
“If South Korea wants to know the real capabilities of North Korea and its soldiers, it would be beneficial for them to be here to see and analyze the reality first hand,” he said. “Consider how close North Korea is to (South Korean capital) Seoul (25-30 miles), the range of modern artillery, not missiles.
“Air defenses cannot resist artillery attacks. Our own cities are being bombed by artillery. I hope South Korea never faces this, but preparations are critical,” added Zelenskyy.
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Soldiers march in a parade marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of North Korea in Pyongyang on September 9, 2018. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan/File)
Zelenskyy also questioned China’s “silence” about the North’s involvement in the war.
Meanwhile, North Korea is reported to have fired a short-range ballistic missile into the sea on Tuesday.
The launch came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un oversaw a flight test of the country’s latest intercontinental ballistic missile designed to reach the US mainland. In response to the launch, the United States launched a B-1B long-range bomber in a trilateral exercise with South Korea and Japan on Sunday in a show of force.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
