A senior Ukrainian official confirmed on Monday the nation’s troop fired on North Korean soldiers stationed in Kursk, a border region of Russia that Ukraine counter-invaded in August.
The exchange is the first reported kinetic action between North Korea and Ukraine. European, South Korean, and American officials have for weeks warned of evidence that the communist North Korean regime had begun moving thousands of troops into Europe in anticipation of aiding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, potentially the result of dictator Kim Jong-un signing a mutual defense agreement with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin in June. Pyongyang has repeatedly denied any involvement against Ukraine, however, alleging that any such reports were Western propaganda.
The report of exchanges between Ukrainian and North Korean forces followed a record-setting test last week of North Korea’s latest model of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the “Hwasong-19,” and reports out of South Korea and Japan that the North Korean regime may be planning to imminently test a nuclear weapon for the first time since 2017. It also follows effusive complaints from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the European Union and the Pentagon have not taken the threat of a North Korean invasion seriously and their “zero” response would embolden more violence on the part of Russia and its allies.
“The first DPRK soldiers have already come under fire in the Kursk region,” Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, announced on Monday in a post on the encrypted messaging application Telegram, the state outlet Ukrinform reported.
While Kovalenko independently confirmed the attack, Zelensky himself did not mention any North Korean activity in his daily update with staffers on Monday, according to Ukrinform. Zelensky has nonetheless repeatedly warned of the possibility of a world war given the involvement of the nuclear-capable North Korean military – and expressed frustration at the apparent lack of alarm in Washington and western Europe. […]
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