By Jim Morris, Warrior Vice President, News
The Pentagon has put North Korea on notice – if the troops Pyongyang sent to Russia get involved in combat, Ukrainian soldiers will put them in their sights.
The Defense Department’s spokesman, Air Force Gen. Pat Ryder, estimated Monday that there are as many as 12,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia. “We’ve seen the press reports about alleged (North Korean) combat ops, and we’re looking into those,” Ryder at a press conference. “Should these troops engage in combat support operations against Ukraine, they would become legitimate military targets.”
Ryder added that, “All indications are that they will provide some type of combat or combat support capability.”
Neither Russia nor North Korea has confirmed the presence of North Korean troops in Russia. Last month, Ukraine claimed that the first North Koreans had arrived in Russia’s western Kursk region – the site of a Ukrainian incursion in August.
Ryder said the North Koreans are “coming into replace the massive number of losses that Russia is experiencing and I would certainly not want to be a North Korean soldier.”
According to multiple reports, Russia is having manpower problems. It’s estimated that Moscow is enlisting up to 30,000 soldiers a month. That’s barely enough to keep up with reported casualties.
The presence of the North Koreans is the latest sign of growing military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang. Russian leader Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un have met twice in the last year. In June, they signed a mutual defense treaty calling for the two countries to aid each other in the event of “aggression.”
In addition, Putin said that Russia “does not exclude the development of military-technical cooperation with North Korea.”
In the last year or so, North Korea has been sending munitions to Russia, whose stockpiles have been dwindling. According to South Korean officials, Pyongyang has sent an estimated nine million artillery shells, along with KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles and anti-tank rockets.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, North Korea launched more missiles in its second test in several days. South Korea’s military said it detected the launch of “several short-range ballistic missiles” that fell into the East Sea off the Korean peninsula. Kim Jong-un’s regime called the test a direct response to aerial exercises on Sunday between the US, South Korea and Japan.
That comes after last week’s launch of what North Korea called its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile.
South Korea will be getting more technical means to detect North Korean missile launches. The State Department said Monday that a new US military aid package worth almost $5 billion has been approved. It includes four E-7 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft.
