U.S. confirms reports that thousands of North Korean troops have been dispatched to Russia

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday said the evidence is now clear that thousands of North Korean troops are on the ground in Russia and could eventually find themselves on the front lines in Ukraine. Mr. Austin told reporters in Rome that it would be “very, very serious” if the North Korean troops were preparing to fight alongside Russian troops.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said intelligence suggests that up to 12,000 North Korean troops could be deployed to fight on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the invasion that began in February 2022. The North Korean deployment, backed by shipments of armaments Pyongyang has already delivered to the Kremlin, could bolster Russian assets along the more than 600-mile-long front across southern and eastern Ukraine.

Later in the day, the White House confirmed South Korean intelligence reports that at least 3,000 North Korean troops were training at a series of Russian military bases, but American officials have still not determined whether Pyongyang’s troops have actually joined the fight.

Mr. Austin’s comments Wednesday were the first official confirmation from the Biden administration that the intelligence reports were correct. The deployment is the first large-scale overseas mission for the isolated regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un since the Korean War in the early 1950s.

“There is evidence that there are [North Korean] troops in Russia. What exactly are they doing? Left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out,” Mr. Austin said, according to Reuters.

Talking to reporters later in the day at the White House, Biden administration national security spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. analysts now believe that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers traveled by ship to Vladivostok, Russia’s largest Pacific port, in early to mid-October.

“These soldiers then traveled onward to multiple Russian military training sites in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training,” Mr. Kirby said, according to an Associated Press report. “We do not yet know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military, but this is certainly a highly concerning probability.”

He added a warning to Pyongyang: “I can tell you one thing, though, if they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they’re fair game.”

South Korean intelligence was the first to publicize reports that the Russian navy last week transported some 1,500 North Korean special warfare troops to Russia. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have dismissed reports that their forces would be fighting together.

On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow that cooperation between Russia and North Korea isn’t focused on other countries and should not be a cause of concern, even as ties between Mr. Kim and Mr. Putin have warmed noticeably in recent months.

“North Korea is our close neighbor [and] our partner. We are developing our relations in all areas. This is our sovereign right,” Mr. Peskov said, according to the official Tass Russian news agency. “This should not worry anyone, because this cooperation is not directed against third countries.”

North Korea’s state-controlled KCNA news agency reported on cryptic comments from Kim Yo-jong, deputy department director of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, attacking what he called the “lunatics” in South Korea and Ukraine for their unspecified “infringements” on North Korean sovereignty. The statement seemed to be attacking recent comments in both capitals that they might have to reconsider their policies of not possessing nuclear weapons.

“Seoul and Kyiv are exactly alike in going about here and there begging and letting loose ludicrous and reckless remarks against nuclear weapons states that they cannot withdraw,” the North Korean official said. “It seems to be a common feature of bad dogs bred by the United States.”

On Tuesday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the dispatch of North Korean troops to Ukraine would mark a “significant escalation” of the war, and said he asked South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to send experts to Brussels next week to brief the military alliance.

Western intelligence officials said Russia has likely sustained more than 600,000 casualties of killed or wounded troops since the invasion began. Building on a pair of Kim-Putin summits, North Korea and Russia in June signed a strategic partnership that included a mutual defense pact.

While the North Korean troops could be a welcome infusion of force in the war for Moscow, the deployment could be another sign of the Kremlin’s growing personnel woes, Mr. Austin said, according to the AP.

“This is an indication that [Mr. Putin] may be even in more trouble than most people realize,” he told reporters, adding that the Russian president “went ’tin-cupping’ early on to get additional weapons and materials from [North Korea] and then from Iran.”

“Now he’s making a move to get more people. If that is the case, these troops are designed to be a part of the fight in Ukraine.”

• This story is based in part on wire service reports.