And US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is now saying there's
evidence that North Korea has sent troops to Russia.
This comes after a video recently serviced online showing a
large group of people appearing to be North Korean soldiers
walking in what looks like Russia.
The date of the video is unknown.
Secretary Austin says the presence of troops poses a danger
for regions far beyond Ukraine.
If they're Co belligerence, their intention is to participate in
this war on on Russia's behalf.
That is a very, very serious issue and it will
have impacts not only on in Europe, it will also
impact things in the Indo Pacific as well.
And let's go now to Patrick reeval in London with
more.
Patrick, what's the main concern surrounding these troops at this
point?
Hi, Dan.
Yeah, I mean, I think there's significant concern mainly about
the fact that North Korean troops appear to be joining
the war because of what it means.
It means that we now have another country doing something.
There's almost unprecedented really seeing North Korean troops arrive to
fight against Ukraine in a European country.
But I think you know, what we've heard from North
Korea and South Korea, So from the South Korea and
Ukraine, I should say sorry, is that they believe around
12,000 North Korean troops are being sent to Russia to
fight against Ukraine.
They say that they are on Russian military bases already
being trained around 3000 of them.
This the head of Ukraine's military intelligence have said that
they believe the first North Korean troops around 2600 will
arrive at the Russian region, of course, which is the
region where Ukraine managed to gain a foothold with its
surprise incursion back in August and where Russia has been
struggling to dislodge them.
So he said that they would arrive already tomorrow.
That would mean potentially we could even see North Korean
troops fighting against Ukrainian forces in the coming days.
It should be said, though, the Defense Secretary Austin has
said that so far the US is not sure what
exactly North Korean troops are doing in Ukraine.
He says that the US is still trying to work
that out.
But as you say clearly and as we heard him
say, that this they believe will be a very serious
development if this is if this were to take place
down, Patrick.
On the on the flip side of that, Austin also
seemed to imply that if these troops are there, the
fact that Russia needs the help from North Korea could
mean Russia's in trouble.
Yeah, he did say that.
Lloyd Austin did say that.
One of the conclusions that can be drawn potentially from
the fact that Russia has had to turn to North
Korea for troops underlines how Russia is struggling with manpower
because of the enormous casualties that it's taking.
The Pentagon assesses that Russia has now lost around 600,000
troops dead and wounded since its invasion in 2022.
Of course, that is an enormous number.
U.S.
officials also say that Russia in particular has been losing
huge numbers of troops just in the last few months
because it is on the offensive in eastern Ukraine.
I think, though, while of course, this does suggest that
Russia is having to scratch around to try and find
more troops, the fear is still very real that North
Korea could provide more.
And while 12,000 right now is not that significant, I
think the fear is that if thousands more North Korean
troops which arrived, that could become very, very concerning for
Ukraine.
Diane.
All right.
AB CS Patrick Reevel in London.
Thank you, Patrick.