“North Korea may provide Putin with 100,000 soldiers for the war against Ukraine – Bloomberg November 17, 18:11 Share: Russian dictator Vladimir Putin during a meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Choi Tson Hee on November 4, 2024 (Photo: Sputnik/Mikhail Tereshchenko/ Pool via REUTERS) North Korea may provide Russian dictator Vladimir Putin with up to 100,000 troops to help him in his”, — write on: ua.news
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin during a meeting with North Korean Foreign Minister Choi Jong-hee, November 4, 2024 (Photo: Sputnik/Mikhail Tereshchenko/Pool via REUTERS)
North Korea could provide Russian dictator Vladimir Putin with up to 100,000 troops to help him in his war against Ukraine if the alliance between Moscow and Pyongyang continues to deepen, Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with the estimates of some G20 countries.
Such a move is not imminent, agency sources said, and military support on this scale — if it occurs — is likely to occur in batches with troop rotations over time, rather than a one-time deployment.
Bloomberg reminds that earlier this month, Ukrainian Ambassador to South Korea Dmytro Ponomarenko made a similar assessment. In an interview with Voice of America, he stated that up to 15,000 North Korean troops, who will be deployed for combat operations in the Kursk region of Russia and possibly in the occupied areas of eastern Ukraine, will change every few months.
Spokesmen for South Korea’s defense ministry and the president’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The agency notes that Kyiv’s allies are worried about Kim Jong Un’s decision to send troops to Putin’s aid, as they believe it could escalate the war and affect the security balance in the Indo-Pacific region, where rivalry between China and the US is growing.
Bloomberg recalls that the issue was raised by several allies at the G20 summit in Brazil this week, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who discussed it during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. In addition, Scholz told Putin that the deployment of North Korean troops is a “serious escalation” of the war against Ukraine, during the first phone conversation in two years on November 15.
German officials say Scholz pressured the Chinese leader at their November 12 meeting in Rio de Janeiro to use his influence with Russia and North Korea to avoid a further escalation of the war. The deployment of the North Korean contingent shows that the war is becoming globalized, and Scholz and Xi will have to discuss this new dimension of the conflict, the officials said. Another person reported that the concern was also present during the APEC meeting (Asia-Pacific Cooperation) in the Peruvian capital Lima this week.
In recent years, Xi Jinping has been the most helpful to both Putin and Kim Jong Un, as he sees them as partners in the fight against the US-led world order. At the same time, Bloomberg notes that China’s lack of public comments on the participation of North Korean troops in the war may be a sign that the Chinese leader is not satisfied with this arrangement.
The agency explains that the partnership between Kim and Putin creates risks of increased economic pressure on China at the same time as the likely increase in tariffs threatened by US President-elect Donald Trump. It also undermines Beijing’s insistence that the US should have no military alliances in the Indo-Pacific region.
China does not “allow conflicts and unrest to occur on the Korean Peninsula” and will not “to sit idly by when its strategic security and core interests are threatened,” Xi Jinping told US President Joe Biden during talks on November 16 on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima, Bloomberg reports.
The participation of North Korean troops in the war against Ukraine is the main thing
On October 18, the Defense Ministry announced that almost 11,000 North Korean soldiers are training in eastern Russia to fight against Ukraine. South Korean intelligence reported that the Russian Federation is preparing North Korean special forces for the war in Ukraine.
On October 28, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed the involvement of North Korean troops in the war against Ukraine and their redeployment to the Kursk region of the Russian Federation.
According to Ukrainian intelligence, Russia has armed the North Korean military “infantry-style” — with mortars, machine guns, machine guns, rifles, etc.
As The Washington Post reported, in exchange for people, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un will receive money, military technology, and international attention from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
On November 4, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi noted that 11,000 troops from North Korea are stationed in the Kursk region.
On November 5, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced that the first small clash with North Korean troops took place on the front in the Kursk direction.