Kim Jong Un sending soldiers to Russia complicates Putin’s big summit

The North Korean forces are a small number so far, at least 3,000 the U.S. says, compared with the hundreds of thousands the West estimates have been killed in Ukraine on both sides. But it may allow Russia to reorganize and push forward, and if it works North Korea can send more. It has a million strong army.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday that the reports of North Korea sending soldiers to Russia was “fake and hype,” local media reported. The Kremlin has not directly denied the reports, however.

“I am very concerned,” James Stavridis, a retired U.S. Navy admiral and the former supreme commander of NATO forces, told MSNBC yesterday. “It’s a real boost for the Russians. And I can assure you, those will be well trained, capable North Koreans.”

And it may also have a psychological impact on already beleaguered Ukrainian forces, the implicit message from Russia being: “We can keep fighting for a long time.”

All this can change the mindset in other countries, too. 

The war is effectively widening to include Asia. Which other leaders might decide to send their forces into the battlefield? And if a North Korean soldier is killed with NATO weapons how does the often unpredictable Kim respond?

This week South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador, seeking the “immediate withdrawal” of North Korean troops from Russia. In a meeting with the ambassador, Georgiy Zinoviev, South Korea’s vice-foreign minister Kim Hong-kyun warned that Seoul will “respond with all measures available.”

Another political impact may be felt by those countries occupying the ground between Russia and the West. 

On the stage this week with Putin, Xi and Pezeshkian were leaders of countries like Brazil, Egypt, the UAE and India. Each of them are partners of the U.S. in trade and/or security. They are also members of the group known as BRICS — representing 41.1% of the world’s population and 37.3% of its gross domestic product — that convened in the city for its annual summit.

As the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East escalate it gets harder to walk that neutral line.

“We are a partner of the United States and a partner of other countries too,” Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira told NBC News in an interview at the gathering in the eastern Russian city of Kazan.

Asked whether he had raised with Putin the dangers of another country sending troops to fight Ukraine he demurred: “I never heard about that before. He didn’t tell me about it. I don’t know.”

Today many ordinary Russians say they want peace.