North Korea sends foreign minister to Russia as its troops train to fight Ukraine

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – North Korea said Tuesday its top diplomat is visiting Russia, another sign of their deepening ties, as rival South Korea and Western nations say North Korea has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said a delegation led by Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui traveled to Russia on Monday, but did not specify the purpose of the visit. In a closed hearing in South Korea’s parliament, South Korea’s spy agency said Choe may be involved in high-level discussions about sending additional troops to Russia and negotiating what the North would get in return, according to Lee Seong-kweun, a lawmaker. who attended the meeting.

The announcement of Choe’s visit came hours after the Pentagon said North Korea has sent to Russia about 10,000 soldierswho will likely fight against Ukraine within “the next few weeks.”

South Korean and Western leaders have expressed concern that North Korean involvement could help prolong Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and that Russia could offer technology in return that could advance the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said a “relatively small number” of North Korean troops are now in the Kursk region, where Russia has fought to push back a Ukrainian incursion. He declined to give a more precise figure. A few thousand more troops are headed in that direction, he told reporters on Tuesday.

“At this point, you know, it remains to be seen exactly how the Russians and the North Koreans will deploy these forces,” Ryder said, adding that he expects the deployment to be discussed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Foreign Secretary Antony Blinken and their South Korean colleagues when they meet in Washington this week.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers it is investigating the possibility that some groups of North Korean military personnel in Russia, including generals or other senior officials, may have already moved to frontline areas. The spy agency said the two sides appear to be struggling to resolve communication problems, even as the Russian military trains North Korean troops in Russian military terminology, Lee said.

The agency said space-based reconnaissance is one area where North Korea is likely to receive Russian help. It said North Korea may be acquiring advanced components from Russia as it prepares to launch another military reconnaissance satellite after a failed attempt in Maysaid Park Sun-won, another lawmaker who attended the hearing.

North Korea first placed a spy satellite into orbit last November. Its leader Kim Jong Un has described these assets as critical to monitoring South Korean and US military activities and bolstering the threat posed by his nuclear-capable missiles.

In a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia could pose a “major security threat” to Seoul if the North gains access to Russian technology and its troops gain combat experience.

The leaders confirmed plans to exchange government delegations as part of efforts to strengthen communications and coordinate their responses to the conflict, Yoon’s office said.

In earlier calls with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Yoon called for closer coordination with European governments aimed at “monitoring and blocking illicit exchanges” between Pyongyang and Moscow.

After rejecting the claims of North Korean troop deployments, Pyongyang and Moscow have taken a more vague stance, arguing that their military cooperation is in line with international law without directly admitting the presence of North Korean forces in Russia.

North Korea has also been accused of supplying Russia with millions of artillery shells and other military equipment to fuel its war in Ukraine. The United States and its partners have described Russia’s purchase of North Korean personnel and supplies as a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and raised suspicions that Moscow is helping Pyongyang evade sanctions and illegally fund its weapons program.

Russia, along with China, has blocked US-led efforts in the Security Council to tighten sanctions against North Korea over the country’s recent missile tests, which intensified after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia also vetoed a UN resolution to extend the monitoring mandate in March in a move that effectively abolished UN experts’ oversight of Security Council sanctions against North Korea. That led to Western accusations that Moscow was acting to protect its arms purchases from Pyongyang.

“The illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea poses a significant security threat to the international community and a serious matter that could potentially harm our security. We must thoroughly examine all options and prepare countermeasures,” Yoon said at a cabinet meeting in Seoul on Tuesday.

Yoon last week raised the possibility supply Ukraine with weapons while he says Seoul is preparing countermeasures that could be rolled out in stages depending on the degree of military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

South Korea, a growing arms exporter, has provided humanitarian aid and other non-lethal support to Ukraine and joined US-led economic sanctions against Moscow. It has so far resisted calls from Kyiv and NATO to directly supply Ukraine with weapons, citing a long-standing policy of not supplying weapons to countries engaged in active conflict.

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Associated Press reporter Lolita C. Baldor contributed from Washington.