North Korean troops fighting Ukraine will be 'fair game,' U.S. warns Putin

SEOUL, South Korea — Twelve thousand North Korean troops will be sent to Russia, South Korea said Thursday, vowing it “will not stand by and do nothing” in the face of the significant “provocation.”

South Korea’s Defense Ministry shared the new estimate with NBC News after the U.S. joined Seoul and Kyiv in confirming the development and said any troops deployed against Ukraine will be “fair game.”

Pyongyang is expected to augment Russia’s military with its own sizable contingent of special forces, military engineers and artillery troops, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun reported to lawmakers Thursday, his office told NBC News. The total number is expected to reach 12,000, he said, with 3,000 having been deployed already.

That matches Washington’s assessment.

“They’re fair game,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Wednesday, saying the U.S. believes at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers have already arrived in eastern Russia by sea. The soldiers moved this month and are being trained at multiple Russian military bases, Kirby said.

“They're fair targets, and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they’re defending themselves against Russian soldiers,” he said. “There could be dead and wounded North Korean soldiers fighting against Ukraine.”

His comments were the first detailed assessment Washington has offered after its allies grew frustrated by sounding the alarm for days with their own intelligence. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin first confirmed their deployment earlier Wednesday, and NATO followed with its own confirmation later in the day.

“What exactly they’re doing is left to be seen,” Austin told reporters in Rome.

But U.S. allies were in little doubt.

North Korean soldiers were being disguised as Russians and were acting under the Kremlin’s command instead of their own, the South Korean defense minister told lawmakers Thursday, which he said suggested “Kim Jong Un is selling North Korean soldiers as cannon fodder mercenaries.”

Still, integrating the two militaries will not be easy, and it is likely to be complicated by their different languages, experts say, though the prospect of North Korea’s inexperienced military bringing back critical battleground experience has worried officials in Seoul.

“North Korea’s dispatch of the troops to Russia is a provocation that is threatening the security of the Korean peninsula,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Thursday. “South Korea will not stand by and do nothing,” his office said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this week that Pyongyang was preparing two brigades of 6,000 soldiers each to boost Putin’s military.

The U.S. and other countries say North Korea has already provided critical munitions, including millions of artillery shells, to Russia in possible exchange for key military technology that Pyongyang could use to advance its nuclear ambitions. Both countries deny the arms transfer.

Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday that the reports North Korea is sending soldiers to Russia are “fake and hype,” local media reported. The Kremlin has not directly denied the reports, however.

Providing soldiers now, officials say, would deepen the military alliance that Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un cemented in June.

For more than two years, South Korea has provided only nonlethal assistance to Ukraine, but Yoon said Wednesday that Seoul will now consider providing Kyiv with both defensive and offensive weapons.

Meanwhile, China, which borders both Russia and North Korea and has developed increasingly close ties with both amid its rivalry with the West, has called for a peaceful settlement of the war.

Beijing said Thursday it was “not aware of the situation” when it was asked about Pyongyang’s putting its boots on the ground in Russia.

“China’s position on the Ukraine crisis has been consistent and clear, and it hopes that all parties will work towards de-escalating the situation and remain committed to a political solution,” it said.

Still, Chinese companies have been accused of directly helping Russia build attack drones to be used in its war against Ukraine. Last week, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on two Chinese drone and parts makers for “developing and producing complete weapons systems” in collaboration with Russian companies.

Beijing said Thursday it opposed the sanctions.

China opposes unilateral sanctions and “long-arm jurisdiction” that have no basis in international law and are not authorized by the United Nations Security Council, Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yadong told reporters.

Stella Kim reported from Seoul and Mithil Aggarwal from New Delhi.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com