CNN —
A small number of North Korean troops are already stationed inside Ukraine, according to two Western intelligence officials, and officials say their numbers will grow as North Korea completes training in eastern Russia and heads toward the front lines of the war. I expect it to increase.
The presence of North Korean troops in Ukraine goes a step beyond what NATO and the Pentagon confirmed on Monday. That means around 10,000 North Korean troops are training in eastern Russia, some on their way to Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian forces have occupied territory inside Kursk since August.
One official said Tuesday of North Korea: “It looks like quite a few are already in action.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that Ukrainian intelligence assesses that troops will begin entering the combat zone on Sunday.
A US official said the US could not yet corroborate reports that North Korean troops were already in Ukraine. However, the United States continues to catch up when it comes to North Korea’s deployment. U.S. officials did not officially acknowledge that troops were in Russia until weeks after South Korea first made the claim.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday that U.S. and South Korean diplomatic and military officials will meet in Washington, D.C., this week to discuss the deployment and North Korea’s “expanding relationship with Russia” more broadly.
Separately, Ukraine’s top official, Andriy Yermak, is in the US capital on Tuesday to meet with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Mr. Yermak said he spoke with Mr. Sullivan about “North Korean soldiers who Russia is preparing for war.”
It remains to be seen how useful the North Koreans will be to the Russians on the battlefield. Officials say many of the troops being sent are special forces, and intelligence estimates indicate that North Korea’s military is better trained and specialized than Russia’s regular army. He also believes that he has high fighting ability.
But North Korea’s military has not fought an actual war in more than 70 years, and intelligence officials believe the North Korean government has sent them primarily to gain combat experience.
Officials also expect that at least some troops will desert once they reach the battlefield, and that the language barrier with the Russians will be a major impediment to seamless operations. Russians are teaching North Korean soldiers basic Russian commands such as “fire” and “position” in training, South Korean lawmakers told reporters on Tuesday.
According to audio intercepts by Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Service on October 23, some Russian troops have already expressed concerns about the command of North Korean soldiers and how they are being provided with ammunition and military equipment, saying, “What are we going to do with them?” ”, he says, with doubts. From an encrypted Russian transmission channel.
CNN reported that the intercepts also revealed plans to deploy one interpreter and three senior military officers for every 30 North Korean men.
South Korean intelligence estimates that the number of North Korean troops currently stationed in Russia is about 13,000, more than in the United States or Britain. That number is likely to increase further. The United States has already revised its assessment upward from last week, when the White House assessed that only about 3,000 North Korean troops were stationed in Russia.
“The number could be even higher,” a third Western official said. “Allies and partners around the world are monitoring, consulting, and actively sharing information on this issue as it impacts security in the Euro-Atlantic region, the Indo-Pacific region, and beyond. I intend to.”
In addition to military personnel, North Korea has provided Moscow with 11,000 ammunition containers containing about 2 million artillery shells since last year, a senior NATO official told CNN earlier this month.
The United States wants China, which maintains ties with North Korea, to intervene and pressure North Korea to withdraw, officials said.
Sullivan “directed the U.S. government to engage with China and organize efforts to encourage other countries to engage with China regarding our concerns about North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia and its impact,” a U.S. official told CNN. told. To China.
“We have communicated with China on this issue and made it clear that we are concerned about this issue and that China should also be concerned about this destabilizing behavior by its neighbors Russia and North Korea. ” Miller said.
But Western officials are not optimistic that China will intervene in North Korea’s plans, the sources said. China remains a “key enabler” of Russia’s war effort, according to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officials, and still has significant amounts of munitions such as microelectronics and machine tools that can be used to make weapons. supports Russia’s defense industry.
CNN’s Haley Britsky and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting.
