South Korea calls for immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops allegedly in Russia

By  Hyung-Jin Kim, SEOUL South Korea

South Korea early this week demanded the immediate pullout of North Korean troops allegedly deployed in Russia as it summoned the Russian ambassador to protest deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

South Korea’s spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that North Korea sent 1,500 special operation forces to Russia this month to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korea soldiers were being prepared to join invading Russian forces.

During a meeting with Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev, Vice South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Hong Kyun “condemned in the strongest terms” North Korea’s troop dispatch that he said poses “a grave security threat” to South Korea and the international community, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Kim said that South Korea in collaboration with the international community will mobilize all available means to deal with an act that threatens its vital national security interests, according to the statement. The Russian Embassy quoted Zinoviev as saying that the Russian-North Korean cooperation is not aimed against the security interests of South Korea.

In a telephone call with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said that Seoul won’t sit idly by “reckless” military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow. Yoon said South Korea will soon send a delegation to NATO to exchange information about Russian-North Korean cooperation, according to Yoon’s office. Rutte wrote on X that North Korea possibly fighting alongside Russia would “mark a significant escalation.”

The U.S. and NATO haven’t confirmed that North Korean troops were sent to Russia. But the reports of their presence have already stoked concerns in South Korea that Russia might provide North Korea with sophisticated technologies that can sharply enhance the North’s nuclear and missile programs in return for its troop dispatch.

North Korea’s advancing nuclear arsenal is a major security threat to South Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently took steps to permanently terminate all relations with South Korea and threatened to use nuclear weapons preemptively. Some observers say South Korea will likely consider supplying weapons to Ukraine if Russian transfers of high-tech nuclear and missile technologies to North Korea are verified.

South Korea has joined U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But South Korea hasn’t directly provided arms to Kyiv, citing its longstanding policy of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged in conflicts.

Russia has earlier denied using North Korean troops in its war with Ukraine. North Korea’s state media hasn’t commented on the matter. Ukrainian officials released a video allegedly showing North Korean soldiers lining up to collect Russian military clothes and bags at an unknown location. The Associated Press couldn’t verify the footage independently.

Asked about the North Korean troops during a conference call with reporters Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “we are seeing a lot of contradictory information.”

“South Koreans say one thing, then the Pentagon says it has no confirmation of such statements. There is a lot of contradictory information,” Peskov said. ”It must be treated as such.”

At a U.N. Security Council meeting Monday on Ukraine, Western ambassadors raised the South Korean intelligence, but none confirmed it.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood said that if true, it marks “a dangerous and highly concerning development” and noted that the U.S. was “consulting with our allies and partners on such a dramatic move.”

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward said it’s “highly likely” North Korea agreed to send troops in support of Russia’s war.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia dismissed the South Korean assertion as well as Western allegations of Iran supplying Russia with missiles and China providing arms components. He accused the West of “circulating scaremongering with Iranian, Chinese and Korean bogeymen, each one of which is more absurd than the one before.”

North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia would be its first participation in a major war since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Many experts question how much North Korean troops would help Russia on the battlefield, citing their lack of combat experience.

Cooperation between North Korea and Russia has flourished over the past two years. The U.S., South Korea and their partners have accused North Korea of supplying conventional arms to Russia in return for economic and military assistance. In June, Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a pact stipulating mutual military assistance if either country is attacked.