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North Korean forces have come under fire after joining Russia’s war, Ukrainian officials said.
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week that 8,000 North Koreans had been sent to Kursk.
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The Pentagon says North Korean troops involved in fighting would make them a good target in the war.
North Korean forces are already seeing military action in Russia’s Kursk region, Ukrainian officials said Monday.
“The first North Korean troops have already come under fire in Kursk Oblast,” Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation, said on Telegram, according to The New Voice of Ukraine translation.
An unnamed senior Ukrainian intelligence official later confirmed the report to the Financial Times but declined to provide further details.
Ukrainian forces have occupied large parts of Kursk since early August, after Kiev launched a surprise cross-border offensive in the region.
Last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said 8,000 North Korean troops had been moved to Kursk and predicted they would join the battle soon.
“We have not yet seen these troops deployed in combat against Ukrainian forces, but we expect this to happen in the coming days,” he said.
At the same briefing, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that if North Korean forces were to participate in fighting or provide combat support, they would become “legitimate military targets.”
Kovalenko’s statement on Monday was the first to suggest that North Korean forces were now actively fighting alongside Russian forces and against Ukraine.
US Air Force Major General Pat Ryder said at a Pentagon briefing on Monday that the US was “investigating” the reports.
Last month, South Korean intelligence said 1,500 North Korean troops had been shipped to Russia for training and likely deployment in the war.
This came after ties between Moscow and Pyongyang deepened following the large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
On Saturday, Ukrainian intelligence shared details of the military equipment it said Russia provided to North Korean forces, including mortars, rifles and machine guns.
Experts in North Korea say the partnership between Moscow and Pyongyang is mutually beneficial: While Russia gets much-needed troops, Kim Jong Un is likely to gain both an economic boost for his country and military expertise from his relations with Russia.
Representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Service did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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