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By Maya Mehrara
News Reporter
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President Volodymyr Zelensky has criticized the West's lack of response to the presence of North Korean troops in Russia's Kursk region.
In an interview with the South Korean TV channel KBS yesterday Zelensky said North Korean soldiers have not yet taken part in combat but he expects they will and that this would happen in "days, not months."
Regarding the reaction to the deployment of North Korean troops, Zelensky said, according to Reuters: "Putin is checking the reaction of the West ... And I believe that after all these reactions, Putin will decide and increase the contingent ... The reaction that is there today is nothing, it is zero."
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The direct tone of his comments points to mounting frustration over the extent of support for Kyiv from its allies.
Newsweek reached out to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Russian Federation for comment via email.
On Thursday the Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood's said during a UN Security Council meeting that 8,000 North Korean troops have reportedly been stationed in Kursk Oblast, which borders Ukraine.
The Russian representative did not confirm or deny this.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made similar predictions to Zelensky regarding the North Korean troops' participation in combat and said: "We've not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we would expect that to happen in the coming days."
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The Pentagon estimates that 10,000 DPRK troops have been sent to Russia to train for combat against Ukraine, which is a significant increase from a previous estimate of 3,000 troops.
Zelensky began warning allies about the deployment of North Korean forces on October 13 and has called for help from allies since.
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, about his interview with the South Korean TV outlet, the Ukrainian president described the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia as "a war of two countries against one."
In a thread of posts Zelensky reiterated his thoughts that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "testing the West" and wrote that: "If the response is weak, we should expect the numbers of foreign soldiers on our soil to increase."
Zelensky also specified that Ukraine "await[s] an official team from South Korea, as they have confirmed their plans to send specialists to Ukraine" and emphasized that "strong allies are essential" as "facing Russia and North Korea alone would be dangerous."
In addition the Ukrainian president wrote about the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
"The next U.S. president may strengthen or weaken support for Ukraine. If that support weakens, Russia will seize more territory, it would prevent us from winning this war," he said. "That is the reality. Our stance isn't about territorial compromises but exploring potential diplomatic paths that rely on the U.S. maintaining its commitment. A genuine desire from the United States to end this war swiftly is crucial."
Newsweek spoke to Karolina Hird, a Russia deputy team lead and analyst as well as an Evans Hanson Fellow at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), about the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia and the allies' lack of response.
When asked how she believes the allies will respond to the presence of North Korean troops in Kursk, Hird said it was difficult to forecast, but that this "represents a major escalation in this war" and "the West just hasn't been responding. We haven't seen anything other than kind of rhetorical condemnations from Ukraine's partners."
She continued: "I can't necessarily forecast if that will change, but it seems like this has kind of been the line that the West has chosen is condemn it, but not necessarily materially combat it."
Hird noted that the financial, humanitarian, and military from the allies will likely continue, including from the U.S., although she said this may change with the results of the election.
She said she believes the reason for Moscow's deployment of North Korean troops in Kursk is that it is part of Putin's "internal calculus for the war" and that it is an "alternative way for Putin to repel the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk."
Hird noted that Putin is "very much averse to conducting a general mobilization or a partial mobilization, which is in theory what he needs to do militarily in order to sustain the losses that Russia is accruing on the front line." She said he has deployed North Korean troops so that he does not "have to mobilize additional Russian forces for that effort" and can "maybe even free up Russian forces to go back to more critical areas of the frontline in Ukraine."
Hird said that for the North Koreans, in addition to honoring their mutual defense agreement with Russia, the reason they have been deployed is to embark on "a critical learning opportunity" as they have not been in combat since 1953.
She added: "Drone use, electronic warfare proliferation, even the sort of infantry tactics that are being used on the battlefield, those are all things that I believe Kim has identified things he wants his forces to learn in the chance that they can prepare better for a future conflict in the Asia-Pacific region, specifically on the Korean Peninsula. I think that's the critical part of this puzzle, is that this is, I think largely about combat experience and learning new skills."
Update 11/1/24, 1:45 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with comment from Hird.
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