U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said yesterday that North Korea has sent troops to Russia to aid Moscow in the war in Ukraine, confirming similar reports made in recent weeks by Ukraine and South Korea. Austin said it was still unclear what role the North Korean troops would play in the conflict. (New York Times)
Our Take
Considering that the intelligence Washington has chosen to make public on the war in Ukraine has so far been consistently accurate, it is safe to assume that North Korean troops are indeed in Russia. Still, as even Austin acknowledged, why they have been deployed remains unclear.
It could be as simple as Pyongyang providing training for the use of the weapons it has sold to Moscow, which would be understandable given reports that North Korean weapons have had a high failure rate in Ukraine. But it’s also not unreasonable to expect, as Ukraine and South Korea have suggested, that North Korean troops will indeed fight in Ukraine, especially because the move would serve important purposes for both Moscow and Pyongyang.