Ukraine updates: Seoul says 3,000 N. Korean troops in Russia

The German and Austrian foreign ministries each summoned North Korea's top envoys in their respective countries on Wednesday amid mounting evidence that Pyongyang has sent troops to Russia ahead of potential deployment in Ukraine.

The moves came on the same day that the United States said it had seen evidence of North Korean soldiers in Russia, with South Korean lawmakers saying they numbered at least 3,000.

"Should North Korea now be supporting the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine with troops, this would be serious and in violation of international law," the German Foreign Ministry said on social media.

Austria followed suit, summoning the North Korean ambassador in Vienna to "express grave concern" over the presence of North Korean troops and weapons in Russia.

"This military support in the war against Ukraine is a blatant violation of [international] law and undermines security in Europe & the Korean peninsula," the Austrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

While Germany is a staunch US ally and backer of Ukraine, Austria is militarily neutral but has expressed political support for Kyiv.

The Group of Seven (G7) Western industrialized nations has approved a $50 billion (roughly €46 billion) loan to Ukraine, that would be secured by interest from frozen Russian assets.

Plans to engineer the loan were initially agreed to earlier this year, in an effort to help Kyiv in its fight against Russia.

Daleep Singh, the White House deputy national security adviser on international economics, said the US plans to provide a loan of $20 billion. The additional $30 billion will come from the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan. among others.

"To be clear, nothing like this has ever been done before," Singh said.

Prosecutors in Germany said that a Russian man has been charged with murder over the fatal stabbing of two wounded Ukrainian soldiers earlier this year.

The soldiers were found with stab wounds outside a shopping centre in the Bavarian town of Murnau am See in April, according to police

One of the victims, aged 36, died at the scene, while the other, 23, later succumbed to his wounds in hospital.

Police arrested a 57-year-old Russian citizen at his home shortly afterward and he remains in custody in Munich.

Prosecutors say the three men had been drinking together when an argument broke out about the situation in Ukraine that highlighted the suspect's hostile stance toward the soldiers.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday said that President Vladimir Putin had welcomed offers by the leaders of BRICS countries, to mediate in the war in Ukraine.

Russian state media cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying that many countries "expressed a desire to contribute more actively" to resolve the conflict in comments made on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan.

BRICS member states have made peace proposals since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine with China, India and Brazilpushing their for their own peace plans.

South Africa spearheaded an African "peace mission" to both countries last year.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday said that was evidence that there were North Korean soldiers in Russia, supporting statements made by South Korean intelligence officials that thousands were already in the country.

"There is evidence that there are DPRK troops in Russia," Austin told reporters in Rome, using the formal abbreviation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"What exactly they are doing? Left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out," Austin added.

"If they are co-belligerents, their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf? That is a very serious issue and it will have impacts not only in Europe, it will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific as well,"Austin said, adding that South Korea would be very focused on this issue.

The UK's Ministry of Defence (MOD) on Wednesday said that the number of Russian drone attacks October would likely be the highest since the war in Ukraine began.

The MOD said that during September, Russia launched over 1,300 One Way Attack Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (OWA-UAVs) into Ukraine, representing the highest number in a month to date, but attacks in October were now on course to surpass that number.

"It is unclear whether Russia can sustain this rate through the remainder of 2024," the MOD said.

"However, Russia is almost certainly expanding its capacity to conduct large scale OWA-UAV attacks against Ukraine, supplementing Iranian supply with increasing domestic production," the MOD said in its daily intelligence report.

Germany summoned North Korea's charge d'affaires on Wednesday over mounting concerns that Pyongyang is increasing support for Russia in the war in Ukraine.

The move by the Foreign Office follows reports of a suspected deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia for deployment in Ukraine.

"Should reports be true on North Korean soldiers in Ukraine and should North Korea now be supporting the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine with troops, this would be serious and in violation of international law," the foreign office posted on social media platform X. 

 

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that  North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia in support of Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine and that 10,000 were expected in Russia by December, citing the country's intelligence service.

South Korea's director of intelligence Cho Tae-yong told lawmakers that North Korea has sent an additional 1,500 troops.

Last week, the South Korean National Intelligence Service said it had confirmed that North Korea sent 1,500 special forces personnel to Russia this month.

Russia and North Korea have both denied reports that Pyongyang's troops are being sent to the war in Ukraine. 

Meanwhile, Ukraine's head of the Main Directorate of Intelligence told US publication The War Zone that Kyiv expected North Korean forces to arrive in Russia's Kursk region on Wednesday.

Kursk is where Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion in August and managed to capture a chunk of territory.

South Korea's National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo has warned that "phased measures" could be taken in comments reported by local media.

"There is a possibility that personnel will be sent to Ukraine to monitor the tactics and combat capabilities of North Korean special forces dispatched in support of Russia," Yonhap reported citing an intelligence source.

"If deployed, the team is expected to be composed of military personnel from intelligence units, who could analyze North Korean battlefield tactics or take part in interrogations of captured North Koreans."

Last week video purporting to show dozens of North Korean troops lining up to receive Russian military uniforms was widely circulated.

The video had been obtained by Ukraine's Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security but could not be independently verified.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is in Russia where he is attending the BRICS summit in Kazan.

It is his first visit to the country in more than two years and the decision to attend elicited an angry response from Ukraine.

"The UN Secretary-General declined Ukraine's invitation to the first global peace summit in Switzerland," Kyiv's Foreign Ministry wrote online.

"He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin. This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the UN's reputation." 

Ukraine's "peace summit" in Switzerland in June involved representatives of dozens of countries, but perhaps crucially, none from Russia. Moscow denounced it as meaningless.

Guterres' office said the secretary general would discuss the Ukrainian conflict with Putin, as well as the crisis in the Middle East.

Ukraine's military leadership on Wednesday said that there have been 166 "combat clashes" over the past 24 hours, adding that areas around Pokrovsk and Kurakhivsk in Donetsk in the east, were flashpoints for fighting.

"In the Pokrovsk area, Russian invaders tried to dislodge our units from the occupied lines in the areas of Myrolyubivka, Promin, Lysivka, Selydove settlements," Ukraine's General Staff said.

"Our defenders repelled 56 assaults. The greatest concentration of enemy attacks was near Selydove," it said.

Pokrovsk is a crucial supply hub and is located at the crossroads of Ukraine's most important rail supply routes and forms the backbone of the Ukrainian defense supply line from Vuhledar to the north of the Donetsk region.

Russian forces have been slowly grinding their way towards the key town with attacks intensifying in recent weeks.

Pro-Russian military bloggers, meanwhile, claimed that Russian forces were storming four towns in eastern Ukraine in an effort to expand their footprint in Donbas.

The towns in question were said to be Selydove, Hirnyk, Kurakhove and Toretsk.

Prominent Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger Yuri Podolyaka said Russian forces were attacking Hirnyk from several directions and there was fighting in the center of the town, which had a pre-war population of over 10,000 people.

Podolyaka said that events were "unfolding rapidly" with his accounts being confirmed by a number of other prominent Pro-Russian bloggers.

Russia's Ministry of Defense has not yet commented.

Ukraine's air force on Wednesday reported that there had been 81 drone attacks launched by Russian forces over 12 regions across the country.

Ukrainian air defenses managed to shoot down 57 drones, the air force said.

The attack was repulsed by "aviation, anti-aircraft missile forces, electronic units and mobile fire groups" the air force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging service.

kb/wmr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)