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8,000 North Korean troops in Kursk could join Ukraine war in days, Blinken says

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8,000 North Korean troops in Kursk could join Ukraine war in days, Blinken says

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WASHINGTON – North Korean troops in Russia are poised to begin fighting in days, becoming legitimate military targets for Ukrainian troops, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.

There are 8,000 North Korean troops now in Kursk, the Russian region where Ukrainian troops seized territory this summer, Blinken said at a State Department news conference. Russian forces have been training them in artillery, drones and trench clearing.

Blinken called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reliance on troops from the North Korean regime a sign of weakness. Russian troops are suffering 1,200 wounded and dead per day in fighting, more than at any time in the war, Blinken said.

The war, Blinken said, is a “meat grinder of his own making.”

More: US, allies say they have evidence of North Korean troops deployed to Ukraine

The Kremlin has outfitted the North Korean troops in Russian uniforms and equipment, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the news conference.

Given Russia’s rate of casualties, the North Korean troops won’t last long, Austin said.

“This 10,000 won’t come close to replacing the numbers the Russians have lost,” Austin said. 

The Pentagon said earlier this week that North Korea has sent 10,000 troops to train at Russian military bases in the eastern part of the country.

South Korea earlier said its intelligence service identified a fraction of that number of North Korean troops on Russian territory using facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence. Ukraine’s spy agency said it also had intelligence on the troops’ presence near Ukraine, and that their integration with Russian troops was not running smoothly.

It came as North Korea conducted its longest ever test flight of an intercontinental ballistic missile, the South Korean and Japanese militaries said on Thursday. At 86 minutes in the air before it crashed into the sea off Japan, the missile could theoretically reach U.S. land.

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