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Military action if North Korea enters Ukraine: House Intelligence Chairman

Vaseline October 24, 2024

The U.S. should consider “direct military action” in Ukraine if North Korean forces invade, Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday.

“If North Korean forces were to invade the sovereign territory of Ukraine, the United States should seriously consider taking direct military action against North Korean forces,” Turner said in a statement to X.

The US has supplied the Ukrainian military with weapons since the start of the war, but has avoided military action that would bring the country into direct conflict with Russia. A conflict between the US and Russia would involve all NATO countries, including Canada and 28 European countries, under the organization’s Article 5, which stipulates that an attack on one is an attack on all.

His statement comes after the US said for the first time this week that it has evidence that North Korean troops are fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday that there is “evidence” of North Korean troops in Russia and called their presence a “very, very serious issue.”

“If they are co-belligerents, if their intention is to participate in this war on behalf of Russia, then that is a very, very serious issue,” he told reporters during a trip to Rome.

More: North Korean shock troops in Ukraine? South Korea summons Russian ambassador over reports.

North Korean troops are ‘legitimate military targets,’ White House says

If they join the fight in Ukraine, North Korean forces “will become legitimate military targets,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

Kirby said the U.S. believes North Korea has sent at least 3,000 troops by boat to Vladivostok, a city on Russia’s far east coast. The soldiers then moved to multiple military bases in Russia’s eastern region.

“We don’t know yet whether these soldiers will go into battle alongside the Russian army, but this is certainly a very worrying probability,” he said. “After completing the training, these soldiers were able to travel to Western Russia and engage in battle with the Ukrainian army.”

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Polish President Andrzej Duda condemned the reported deployment during a summit on Thursday.

“We agreed that North Korea’s sending of troops to Russia is a direct violation of UN Security Council resolutions and the UN Charter and a provocation that goes beyond the Korean Peninsula and Europe to the global to threaten security,” Yoon said.

Seoul consulted with the US on Monday about the alleged deployment. Kim Hong-kyun, South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister, called on the Russian ambassador the same day to condemn the “illegal military cooperation,” which he called a violation of international law and a threat to South Korea’s security interests , according to a released statement. by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“We will respond together with the international community by mobilizing all available resources against acts that threaten our fundamental security interests,” he said.

South Korean lawmakers said Wednesday that there are believed to be 3,000 North Korean troops in Russia, a number double the estimate that South Korean intelligence said it identified last week. The spy agency said it worked with Ukrainian spies and used facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence to track North Korean military officers in Russia.

The Kremlin has denied the reports and labeled them “fake news.” A North Korean representative to the United Nations called them “baseless rumors” during a meeting on Monday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has strengthened ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the start of the war in Ukraine. During a rare trip to North Korea in June, Putin signed a diplomatic and defense pact with Kim, and Kim expressed support for the invasion of Ukraine.

North Korea has already supplied large artillery shells to the Russian war effort.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her via email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.