Zelensky calls plans for 10,000 North Korean troops to fight for Russia ‘first step to world war’

Ukrainian intelligence agencies have learned that North Korea is preparing to send 10,000 troops to fight alongside the Russian military in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday.

Zelensky, speaking to the press alongside newly-appointed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, said that North Korea had already sent “tactical personnel and officers” to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, adding that Pyongyang was currently training a contingent of 10,000 troops inside North Korea for deployment alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.

If confirmed, the active involvement of a second country’s military in the war would represent the “first step to a world war”, Zelensky warned.

Rutte said that, while it was “highly worrying” that North Korea was supporting Russia’s war effort by supplying weapons to Moscow, NATO currently had “no evidence” that North Korean soldiers were involved in the fight against Ukraine.

Later on Thursday, the head of Ukrainian military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, told American military news outlet The War Zone that almost 11,000 North Korean infantry troops were currently undergoing training in eastern Russia and would be combat ready by next month.

According to Budanov, while Kyiv did not have the “full picture” on where the North Korean soldiers would be deployed, some 2,600 of them were expected to be dispatched to Russia’s southwestern Kursk region, where the Russian military is currently attempting to dislodge Ukrainian troops who occupied part of the region in August.

Reports of North Korean involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine have become more frequent in recent weeks, with Pyongyang and Moscow deepening military cooperation since Vladimir Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defence pact in June.

Earlier in October, however, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied reports that North Korean troops were involved in the war, dismissing them as “another piece of fake news”.