NATO Chief Says North Korean Troops Are Helping Regain Territory In Russia’s Kursk

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Monday has introduced yet another new bombshell claim related to allegations of North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine alongside Russian forces.

At a press conference in Brussels, which reportedly followed a private briefing by South Korean intelligence officials, Rutte claimed that there is intelligence confirming that North Korean military units have been deployed to Russia’s southwest Kursk region.

The Kursk region has been subject of a Ukrainian cross-border offensive which began in early August. It shocked Kremlin leadership, given Ukrainian soldiers were able to hold on to hundreds of kilometers of territory.

Part of Kiev’s aim appears to have been to distract Russia’s military from its operations in Ukraine’s east, and divide resources, forcing the Russians to deal with clawing back their own territory.

But now the accusation appears to be that Kim Jong Un’s North Korean military is assisting in getting Kursk back. Rutte has called it a sign of “growing desperation.”.

“The deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” Rutte said at the press conference. “The deployment [of] North Korean troops to Kursk is also a sign of Putin’s growing desperation.”

Butte urged: “NATO calls on Russia and the DPRK to cease these actions immediately.”

Zelensky’s office has once again used alleged North Korean involvement to call for more immediate military help from Western allies. “This is an escalation. Sanctions alone are not enough. We need weapons and a clear plan to prevent North Korea’s expanded involvement in the war in Europe,” Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said.

“Today, Russia brings in North Korea; next, it could broaden their engagement, and then other autocratic regimes may see that they can get away with this and come to fight against NATO,” Yermak added. “The enemy understands strength. Our allies have this strength.”

President Joe Biden also on Monday slammed the apparent North Korean troop deployment as a “dangerous” development: 

“Very dangerous,” Biden said when asked about the North Korean deployment, as he spoke to reporters after casting his early vote in the US presidential election in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

JUST IN: 🇰🇵🇷🇺 North Korea officially deploys troops to fight alongside Russia in its war against Ukraine, NATO confirms. pic.twitter.com/voDE8LTAg2

— BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) October 28, 2024

For the first time, the Kremlin has appeared to admit some level of North Korean military troop assistance related to the Ukraine conflict: 

In a response, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed to a security and defense treaty signed by Moscow and Pyongyang in June.

“We have said many times that the treaty is not secret, it is public, the entire text has been published, and it in no way violates any provisions of international law, because it involves, among other things, the providing of assistance in case one of the countries that is a party to the treaty is militarily attacked,” he told a press conference in Moscow, in comments reported by the Interfax news agency.

Lavrov added: “So our position here is absolutely honest and open.” But nothing has been disclosed in terms details of precisely where DPRK soldiers might be operating.”