Ukrainian and North Korean troops clash for first time, Zelensky warns of escalation

Ukraine engaged militarily for the first time with South Korean troops who were deployed to support Russia in its ongoing war with its neighbor. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky he said in an overnight address on Tuesday.

Zelensky did not go into detail about the engagement, but warned of what he says is Russia’s intention to escalate the war that has raged for nearly 1,000 days.

An official in Kiev said the Ukrainian military had fired artillery at North Korean soldiers Kursk border region of Russia.

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“Terror, unfortunately, can spread like a virus when it is not countered enough. Now our countering must be enough, strong enough. The first battles with North Korean soldiers have opened a new chapter of instability in the world.” Zelenskyy said in his late-night video address as he thanked Ukraine’s allies around the world.

“Together with the world, we must do everything to ensure that this Russian step to expand the war with real escalation fails. Both for Russia and South Korea”.

South Korea’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that more than 10,000 North Korean troops had arrived in Russia, with a “significant number” in front-line areas, including the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces staged an incursion in August.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told South Korean state television that there had been a “small engagement” with North Korean troops, according to Reuters. The report, with excerpts from the interview, quoted Umerov as saying that the engagement was small and still not systematic in terms of mobilizing soldiers.

Umerov said five North Korean units, each consisting of about 3,000 troops, were expected to be deployed in the Kursk area. North Korean soldiers are being mixed in with Russian troops and are being misidentified on their uniforms, Umerov said, according to the Associated Press.

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Russia is reported to have 1.3 million soldiers on active duty with another 2 million reserves. Russia is now suffering its highest death toll since the start of the war, with about 1,200 casualties reported a day, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed last week. Despite the high number of troop casualties, there still appears to be no end in sight to the war – validating early fears that it would be a war of attrition.

Zelenskyy sounded the alarm that the recent deployment of North Korean troops to Russia not only causes problems for Ukraine, but also calls into question the stability and security of Asian nations that are allied with the West.

“North Korea’s actions are not random,” Zelensky said he said in a candid interview with South Korea’s public broadcasting network KBS on Thursday. “They have strategic goals.”

“Their actions are not random – they want Russia’s support in return,” he added in comments also posted on his social media account on X.

Zelenskyy called on South Korea to take a bigger role in the conflict and said South Korea has already committed to sending a team of specialists to Ukraine, where they will collaborate on defensive capabilities, including air defense, as North Korea also provides Russia with artillery and missiles.

“If South Korea wants to understand the real capabilities of North Korea and its soldiers, it would be useful for them to be here, to see and analyze the reality firsthand,” he said. Consider how close is north korea to seoul (25-30 miles), the range of modern artillery, not even rockets”.

“Air defenses cannot counter artillery strikes. Our own cities have been destroyed by artillery. I hope South Korea will never face this, but preparation is critical,” Zelenskyy added.

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Zelenskyy questioned China’s “silence” regarding the North’s recent involvement in the war.

Meanwhile, north korea was reported to have fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea on Tuesday.

The launch came days after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un oversaw a flight test of the country’s newest intercontinental ballistic missile, designed to reach the US mainland. In response to this launch, the United States flew a B-1B long-range bomber in a trilateral exercise with South Korea and Japan on Sunday in a show of force.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.