N Korean FM in Russia as its troops train to fight in Ukraine

WASHINGTON

North Korea said on Tuesday its top diplomat is visiting Russia, in another sign of their deepening relations as rival South Korea and Western nations say the North has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency said a delegation led by Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui departed for Russia on Oct. 28, but didn’t specify the purpose of the visit. In a closed-door hearing at South Korea’s parliament, the South’s spy agency said Choe may be involved in high-level discussions on sending additional troops to Russia and negotiating what the North would get in return, according to Lee Seong-kweun, a lawmaker who attended the meeting.

The announcement of Choe’s visit came hours after the Pentagon said North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia, who are expected to arrive in battlefields in Ukraine within “the next several weeks.”

South Korean and Western leaders have expressed concern that North Korean involvement could help prolong Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, and that Russia may offer technology in return that could advance the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters on Oct. 28 that some of the North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine and were believed to be heading for the Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers it’s examining the possibility that some groups of North Korea’s military personnel in Russia, including generals or other high-ranking officials, may have already moved to frontline areas. The spy agency also said the two sides appear to be struggling to resolve communication issues although the Russian military is training North Korean troops on Russian military terminology, Lee said.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol in telephone calls with European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Oct. 28 shared South Korean intelligence assessments that North Korean troops could be deployed to battlefronts “more quickly than anticipated.”

He called for closer coordination with European governments aimed at “monitoring and blocking “illegal exchanges between Pyongyang and Moscow, Yoon’s office said in a statement.

After initially denying the claims about North Korean troop deployments, Pyongyang and Moscow have adopted a vaguer stance, asserting that their military cooperation conforms with international law without directly admitting the presence of North Korean forces in Russia.

North Korea has also been accused of providing millions of artillery shells and other military equipment to Russia to fuel its war in Ukraine.