US Congressman Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, stated that the US and NATO allies should allow Ukraine to respond to Russia’s attacks with strikes using weapons provided by the allies on targets deep in Russian territory, and they should consider attacking “directly North Korean troops” if they are on Ukrainian territory and engaged in combat on Russia’s side. Voice of America cited the congressman’s statement.
Mike Turner, a Republican congressman from Ohio, believes that the Ukrainian military should be able to attack legitimate military targets in Russia with weapons supplied by the United States or NATO allies or with its own weapons without restrictions.
The chairman of the House Committee on Intelligence emphasized that the participation of DPRK troops in the war against Ukraine should be a red line for the United States and NATO, and the allies should not rule out attacks on North Korean troops if they fight in Ukraine.
“I believe that the United States and NATO allies should seriously discuss and consider attacking North Korean troops directly if they are in Ukraine and attacking it. North Korean troops have no place in Europe; they should not be attacking a European country. And I think it’s in the interest of NATO and the interest of the United States as a NATO member that Asian, North Korean communist forces do not march into a European country and attack it,” Turner said.
Turner stated that “a reasonable discussion on this topic needs to be held.”
“I believe they should discuss the fact that North Korean troops should remain legitimate military targets of the United States and NATO,” Turner stressed.
Mike Turner wrote an open letter to the administration in which he called reports of possible DPRK troop involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine an “extraordinary escalation” and demanded that the Biden-Harris administration and NATO partners “set a red line” on the use of North Korean troops against Ukraine.
Earlier, the United States confirmed the presence of North Korean troops in the Kursk region. During a meeting of the Security Council on October 31, Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood said that about eight thousand North Korean troops were in the Kursk region.
“We have just received information that there are about 8,000 DPRK soldiers in the Kursk region. And I have a very respectful question for my Russian counterpart: is Russia still claiming that there are no DPRK troops in Russia? That’s my only question and my last comment,” Wood added.
The UN Security Council meeting ended without a response from the Russian representative.
Later, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken confirmed the information about 8,000 North Korean troops at a briefing.
“We have not yet seen these troops engage in combat operations against Ukrainian forces, but we expect that to happen in the coming days,” Blinken added.
According to the latest U.S. estimate, reported by the AP agency, North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and participate in hostilities against Ukraine. Most of the North Korean soldiers that the U.S. and its allies say have been sent to Russia are now on the border with Ukraine, the report said.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin is currently testing the world’s reaction to the North Korean military in the Kursk region, and now, according to the Ukrainian leader, it is zero. He said this in an interview with the South Korean TV channel KBS.
Zelensky emphasized that the North Korean military is already in the Kursk region of Russia. He emphasized that “they have not yet participated in hostilities, but they will,” and, in his opinion, it is a matter of “days, not months.”
Zelenskyy is convinced that by involving the North Korean military in combat, Putin is testing the world’s reaction; if there is no reaction, the foreign contingent on the Russian side will increase.
