Ukraine reports first ‘small-scale combat’ with North Korean troops in Kursk

Seoul asks UN to persuade Pyongyang to withdraw troops from Russia

5 (EUROPA PRESS)

The Minister of Defense of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov, confirmed this Tuesday that the first “small-scale combat” has already taken place with North Korean troops, of which a deployment of up to 15,000 troops is expected.

Umerov said in an interview for the South Korean network KBS that they expect that in the “coming weeks” the number of fighting will increase and based on this they will carry out a new “analysis” of the situation to be able to act accordingly.

At the moment there are about a thousand North Korean troops in Kursk, although it is expected, the minister explained, that in the coming days, as the training ends, North Korean detachments, made up of 3,000 men, will be deployed in five units, which would cover about 1,500 kilometers.

However, this one-month training period will be reduced in order to be able to deploy all these men in “a few weeks” to allow them to participate in combat as soon as possible, Umerov said.

In previous estimates, the Pentagon estimated that Pyongyang would have sent about 10,000 military personnel to Russian territory. This Monday, Andrei Kovalenko, a senior official at the National Security and Defense Council, reported that North Korean troops had already been attacked by Ukrainian soldiers.

SEOUL ASKS UN TO PRESSURE ON PYONGYANG

For his part, this Tuesday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of South Korea, Cho Tae Yul, on the occasion of a meeting in Seoul on the disarmament of the peninsula, has demanded that senior United Nations officials urge the North Korean Government to withdraw its troops from Russian territory, reports the Yonhap agency.

In a meeting with Rosemary DiCarlo, assistant secretary general for Peace Affairs, and Izumi Nakamitsu, UN high representative for Disarmament Affairs, Cho conveyed to them that the North Korean presence in that conflict is “illegal”, threatens peace and international stability, and does not contribute to ending the deployment and proliferation of nuclear weapons.