Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country’s forces have engaged North Korean troops, adding the development has “opened a new chapter of instability in the world.”
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov confirmed in an interview with South Korean television that the first, “small” armed engagements had occurred with North Korean troops in the more than two-and-a-half-year war.
"The first battles with North Korean soldiers have opened a new chapter of instability in the world," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
Zelenskyy thanked those in the world who, he said, had reacted to the North Korean troops "not just with words... but who are preparing actions to support our defense.."
"We must, together with the world, do everything so that this Russian step to expand the war with real escalation fails. That this step of his (Russian President Vladimir Putin) becomes a losing one – both for him and for North Korea."
South Korea's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that more than 10,000 North Korean troops had arrived in Russia, with a "significant number" in frontline areas, including the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces staged an incursion in August.
The Pentagon said at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers were in Kursk, but it could not corroborate suggestions that they had been engaged in combat.
"The first battles with North Korean soldiers have opened a new chapter of instability in the world," Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
Zelenskyy thanked those in the world who, he said, had reacted to the North Korean troops "not just with words... but who are preparing actions to support our defense.."
"We must, together with the world, do everything so that this Russian step to expand the war with real escalation fails. That this step of his (Russian President Vladimir Putin) becomes a losing one – both for him and for North Korea."
South Korea's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that more than 10,000 North Korean troops had arrived in Russia, with a "significant number" in frontline areas, including the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces staged an incursion in August.
The Pentagon said at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers were in Kursk, but it could not corroborate suggestions that they had been engaged in combat.
‘Small engagement’
Umerov, the defense minister, told South Korea's KBS television in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that there had been a "small engagement" with North Korean troops.
"Yes, I think so. It is (an) engagement," Umerov said, when asked if a clash had occurred.
KBS, with excerpts from the interview, quoted Umerov as saying that the engagement was small and not yet systematic in terms of mobilizing soldiers.
It said Umerov told the interviewer that identification and other procedures would take time as the Russian military was trying to pass off the North Koreans as Buryats, a Mongolian ethnic group from Siberian regions.
Umerov said he expected a sharp rise in the number of North Koreans deployed.
Plans had called for North Korean troops to undergo a month's training, he said, but that "is now being shortened to... two weeks or one week so that they could get engagement on the battlefield."
Russia has declined to acknowledge that North Korean troops are on its territory, but Putin last week did not deny reports of their presence. He said it was up to Russia how to implement its defence pact with Pyongyang.
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