US says North Korean troops ‘fair game’ if deployed to fight in Ukraine

The US has said for the first time it had evidence that 3,000 North Korean troops were receiving training in Russia for possible deployment against Ukraine in “a very serious” escalation that would make them “legitimate military targets”.

White House national security spokesman John F Kirby said North Korean troops were transported to Vladivostok in Russia by ship from the North Korean port city of Wonsan sometime earlier this month.

Ukraine and South Korea have also raised an alarm over North Korea allegedly sending soldiers to assist the Russian war effort.

They had since been deployed to three different training grounds in the Russian Far East, he added. “If they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they are fair game,” Mr Kirby said.

“They are fair targets and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they’re defending themselves against Russian soldiers,” he said.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin reiterated this position on Wednesday.

“There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia,” Mr Austin said, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“If they are co-belligerents – if their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf – that is a very, very serious issue. It will have impacts, not only in Europe. It will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific as well,” he said.

US officials said the disclosure was based on information from declassified intelligence but it is not known for certain that any North Korean soldiers will join the fighting in Ukraine.

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It was South Korea that first claimed earlier this month that the Russian Navy had transported some 1,500 North Korean special forces troops to aid Moscow’s war effort.

Then, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had intelligence that North Korea was preparing 10,000 soldiers to fight alongside the Russians in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, South Korean intelligence service chief Cho Tae-yong told lawmakers another 1,500 soldiers from the North had reached Russia, according to lawmaker Park Sunwon.

The intelligence agency assessed that North Korea aimed to deploy a total of 10,000 troops to Russia by December, Mr Park, who attended Mr Cho’s briefing, said.

The agency also said Pyongyang had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles, and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023. Kyiv published a video purporting to show dozens of North Koreans lining up to collect Russian military fatigues, without providing further details.

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North Korea, which has one of the largest standing armies in the world with 1.2 million soldiers, has emerged as a key ally of Russia, especially since Kim Jong-un visited Russia last year and Vladimir Putin reciprocated by travelling to Pyongyang this year.

Mr Kim and Mr Putin signed a mutual defence treaty pledging to provide immediate military assistance if either country is attacked.

Russia and North Korea have rejected the allegations. A Russian foreign ministry spokesperson on Wednesday described the accusations as a “colossal work of the media propaganda”.