Some of the North Korean troops that have been deployed to Russia have been given Russian uniforms and weapons, according to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
Austin, who met with his South Korean counterpart, Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, at the Pentagon on Wednesday, said that North Korea has deployed roughly 10,000 troops to Russia who have arrived in the eastern part of the country for training, while some have begun to move west toward the battlefield.
“Some of these DPRK troops have already moved closer to Ukraine, and we’re seeing them outfitted with Russian uniforms and provided with Russian equipment,” the secretary said. “I am increasingly concerned that the Kremlin tends to use these North Korean soldiers to support Russia’s combat operations in Russia’s Kursk region, near the border with Ukraine.”
Ukrainian forces currently hold Russian territory in the Kursk region and have held it since August.
Austin acknowledged that North Korea’s direct involvement in the war has “the potential of lengthening the conflict or broadening the conflict” and warned that “it could encourage others to take action.”
North Korea has previously provided Russia with artillery and ballistic missiles, and while Russia has also gotten support from Tehran and indirectly from Beijing, this would be the first time another nation’s troops would be involved in the war.
U.S. officials first affirmed intelligence that North Korea deployed troops to Russia last week after both South Korea and Ukraine had reported the same.
Austin and other U.S. officials have said Russia’s use of North Korean forces demonstrates the significance of Russia’s losses throughout the war. Austin accused Russian leader Vladimir Putin of going “tin-cupping” to other anti-Western world leaders.
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Kim told reporters that the deployment “can result in the escalation of the security threats on the [Korean] Peninsula.”
Russia’s military has suffered more than 600,000 casualties during the 2 1/2 years since it began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to a senior U.S. defense official. Over the length of the war, Russian military and government leaders have repeatedly shown a willingness to sacrifice troops for limited gains.