Updated on Oct. 25, 2024 at 10:14 a.m. ET
Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to deny or confirm that North Korea had sent troops to help his army, adding that Russia and North Korea would themselves decide how to implement their pact to aid each other if attacked.
Asked by a reporter on Thursday about satellite imagery showing North Korean troop movements, Putin said: “Images are a serious thing. If there are images, then they reflect something,” the Reuters news agency reported.
On Friday, North Korean state media reported that the country’s vice foreign minister in charge of Russian affairs, Kim Jong Gyu, said he had heard the “rumor” spread by foreign media that troops had been sent to Russia.
“If there is such a thing that the world media is talking about, I think it would be an act conforming with the regulations of international law,” he said.
Kim however declined to confirm if troops were indeed there, saying that the foreign ministry is separate from the Ministry of Defense.
South Korea last week released detailed satellite images it said showed the first deployment of North Korean troops to Russia. The United States also said on Wednesday it had seen evidence that North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine.
Both countries had previously denied the reports.
Putin, speaking during a press availability on the margins of a BRICS summit in Kazan, said some NATO members were helping Ukraine, adding that North Korea and Russia had a “comprehensive strategic partnership”, agreed this year, that included a mutual defense clause.
“We know who is present there [Ukraine], from which European NATO countries, and how they carry out this work,” Putin said, as cited by Reuters.
“There is article 4,” he said, referring to the mutual defense clause in the partnership agreement with North Korea.
“We have never doubted in the least that the North Korean leadership takes our agreements seriously,” he said. “But what we do within the framework of this article is our business.”
Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed the treaty on June 19 in Pyongyang after summit talks during a state visit by the Russian president.
The partnership’s mutual defense assistance clause applies in the case of “aggression” against one of the signatories.
Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia’s southwestern Kursk region on Aug. 6 and have captured more than two dozen settlements there, Ukraine says.
North Korean troops in Kursk
Putin’s remarks came as Ukraine’s military intelligence reported that the first North Korean soldiers to participate alongside Russian forces in the war against Ukraine had been deployed to the front line in Russia’s Kursk region.
North Korea has sent nearly 12,000 troops to Russia, including 500 officers and three generals, said the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate, or GUR, adding that the first sightings of North Korean soldiers were recorded on Tuesday.
The soldiers are reportedly receiving training at five military training grounds in Ekaterinoslavka, Knyaze-Volkonskoe, Sergeevka, Ussuriysk and Ulan-Ude.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov has been appointed to supervise the training and adaptation of the North Korean troops, who are given “a few weeks” to adjust, the GUR added.
The North Korean military is provided with ammunition, bedding, winter clothing, footwear, and hygiene products, and each soldier receives 50 meters of toilet paper and 300 grams of soap a month.
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‘Highly concerning’
On Wednesday, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby confirmed that North Korea moved at least 3,000 troops to Russia from early-to mid-October, while raising a “highly concerning” probability that they could engage in combat to support Russia after finishing training.
The confirmation came after South Korea’s top intelligence agency said that North Korea was expected to dispatch some 10,000 troops to Russia by December, including about 3,000 already sent to Russia this month.
South Korea has vowed to take “phased” measures in response to growing military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, including sending weapons to Ukraine for the first time.
Russia’s foreign ministry warned on Wednesday that South Korea would pay a heavy price if it got involved.
North Korea’s mission to the United Nations on Wednesday repeated its denial that it has provided arms to Russia, and said criticism by South Korea and Western countries of its military cooperation with Russia was “nothing but baseless rumor.”
Edited by Mike Firn and Eugene Whong
Update adds remarks from Kim Jong Gyu.