Jakarta –

North Korea (North Korea) sent 10 thousand Pyongyang troops to the battlefield to help Russia against the troops Ukraine. Responding to this, the defense leadership of the United States (US) and South Korea (South Korea) called on North Korea to withdraw its troops from Russia.

Reported AFPThursday (31/10/2024), Russia and North Korea have deepened their political and military alliance during the ongoing war. However, sending Pyongyang troops into battle against Kyiv forces would cause a significant escalation, triggering widespread international concern.

“I call on them to withdraw their troops from Russia,” said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon. Also present was South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, beside him.

Austin said the United States would continue to work with allies and partners to prevent Russia from using such troops in combat.

Meanwhile, Kim said he believed North Korea’s troop deployment “could result in increased security threats on the Korean peninsula.”

This is because it is “most likely” that Pyongyang will request technology transfers from Russia to help its weapons programs “including tactical nuclear weapons, intercontinental ballistic missiles and reconnaissance satellites – in return for the deployment of its troops,” he said.

But he did not announce changes to Seoul’s long-standing policy of barring it from selling weapons to active conflict zones including Ukraine. As is known, the US and Ukraine previously asked South Korea to consider this policy.

“At the moment, nothing is certain,” Kim said when asked if there were plans for South Korea to indirectly supply ammunition to Ukraine.

The Pentagon said earlier in the day that a “small number” of North Korean troops had been deployed in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have been conducting a ground offensive since August.

The White House said that Pyongyang’s forces would be a “legitimate military target” if they went to war against Ukraine.

If North Korean troops “fight alongside Russian troops in this conflict and attack Ukrainian troops, Ukrainian troops have the right to defend themselves,” Austin said.

They will be “combatants fighting together, and you have every reason to believe that… they will be killed and wounded as a result of the fighting,” he added.

Pyongyang denies it has sent troops to Russia, but its deputy foreign minister said that if such a deployment occurred, it would be in line with global norms.

North Korea and Russia are both subject to United Nations (UN) sanctions. Pyongyang was sanctioned over its nuclear weapons program, while Moscow over Ukraine’s war.

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui was in Moscow on Wednesday to hold “strategic” talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, while Wang Yi, the top diplomat for China, Pyongyang’s main diplomatic ally, was discussing the Ukraine crisis with the deputy foreign minister. Russia in Beijing.

(taa/taa)