S.Korean Minister: US Troops Likely to Stay Even if Trump is Re-elected

A group photo of South Korean and US forces after joint combat exercises near the demilitarized zone in Bucheon (Reuters)
A group photo of South Korean and US forces after joint combat exercises near the demilitarized zone in Bucheon (Reuters)
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S.Korean Minister: US Troops Likely to Stay Even if Trump is Re-elected

A group photo of South Korean and US forces after joint combat exercises near the demilitarized zone in Bucheon (Reuters)
A group photo of South Korean and US forces after joint combat exercises near the demilitarized zone in Bucheon (Reuters)

The United States is unlikely to cut back its forces in South Korea even if former US president Donald Trump wins re-election, the South's minister tasked with matters related to neighbouring North Korea said in a television interview.

In the interview transmitted on Saturday, Unification Minister Kim Yung Ho told broadcaster KBS this was because the US Congress had already decided the matter in a defense bill it recently passed.

"One of the concerns many people have is... the issue of any withdrawal of US troops from Korea" if Trump is re-elected, Kim said, Reuters reported.

But December's National Defense Authorization Act says the US administration requires congressional approval to scale back the 28,500 troops in South Korea, Kim said.

Strengthening ties between the United States, South Korea and Japan would help overcome any political changes in the US, he added.

At Camp David last August, US President Joe Biden and the leaders of South Korea and Japan agreed to strengthen military and economic co-operation.

The comments came in Kim's reply to a question on a Politico report that Trump was considering letting North Korea keep its nuclear weapons, and offering financial incentives to stop making new bombs - which Trump has denied as "fake news".

"Recognizing North Korea as a nuclear power means that South Korea will have no choice but to develop nuclear weapons, and Japan (also)," Kim said, when asked about the views of some US experts.

These analysts argue that North Korea should be recognized as a nuclear state and call for disarmament talks.

Neither the United States or South Korea can accept the prospect of recognizing North Korea as a nuclear state, since that would trigger a domino effect leading to the collapse of the Non-Proliferation Treaty framework, Kim said.

The neighbours remain technically in a state of war since the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.



Ukrainian Troops Have Engaged with North Korean Units for 1st Time in Russia, Official Says

The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
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Ukrainian Troops Have Engaged with North Korean Units for 1st Time in Russia, Official Says

The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)
The site of a Russian glide bomb strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 04 November 2024, amid the Russian invasion. (EPA)

Ukrainian troops have for the first time engaged with North Korean units that were recently deployed to help Russia in the war with its neighbor, Ukraine's defense minister said Tuesday.

Another Kyiv official said Ukraine's army fired artillery at North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk border region.

The comments were the first official reports that Ukrainian and North Korean forces have engaged in combat, following a deployment that has given the war a new complexion as it approaches its 1,000-day milestone.

Neither claim could be independently confirmed.

The Ukrainian and North Korean troops engaged in “small-scale” fighting that amounted to the start of Pyongyang’s direct involvement in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS in an interview.

North Korean soldiers are mixed with Russian troops and are misidentified on their uniforms, Umerov was quoted as saying by KBS. That makes it hard to say whether there were any North Korean casualties, he said.

Umerov reportedly said he expects that five North Korean units, each consisting of about 3,000 soldiers, will be deployed to the Kursk area.

Meanwhile, Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s Security Council, said “the first North Korean troops have already been shelled, in the Kursk region.”

He provided no further details.

Western governments had expected that the North Korean soldiers would be sent to Russia’s Kursk border region, where a three-month-old incursion by the Ukrainian army is the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II and has embarrassed the Kremlin.

US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments say up to 12,000 North Korean combat troops are being sent by Pyongyang to the war under a pact with Moscow.

The Pentagon said Monday that at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers were in Russia near Ukraine’s border.

More troops from North Korea’s 1.3-million-strong army may be slated for deployment in Russia, according to an analysis published Tuesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations, an international think tank.

The ramifications extend far beyond Europe, it said.

“Despite integration challenges — including communication barriers and differing military doctrines — the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia represents a significant shift in European and Asian security relations,” the analysis said. “For the first time in generations, troops from East Asia are actively engaging in a European conflict.”

The North Korean troops, whose fighting quality and battle experience is unknown, are adding to Ukraine’s worsening situation on the battlefield.

Ukrainian defenses, especially in the eastern Donetsk region, are buckling under the strain of Russia’s costly but relentless monthslong onslaught.

Russian advances have recently accelerated, with battlefield gains of up to 9 kilometers (more than 5 miles) in some parts of Donetsk, the UK Defense Ministry said Tuesday on the social platform X.

It said Russia has superior troop numbers, and despite heavy casualties the Kremlin’s recruitment drive is providing enough new troops to keep up the pressure.

Russia has held the battlefield initiative in Ukraine for the past year. Ukrainian officials have long complained that Western military support takes too long to arrive in the country.

In early October, Russian forces drove Ukrainian troops out of Vuhledar, a town perched atop a tactically significant hill in eastern Ukraine.

It was part of a key belt of Ukrainian defenses in the east. Russia’s next targets likely are the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk and the strategically important city of Chasiv Yar.

In the meantime, Russia has kept up its long-range aerial attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine, authorities say.

A Tuesday morning attack on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed six people and injured 23 others, regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov said.

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said the Russian attacks “must be stopped with strong action.”

“A stronger position by (Ukraine’s Western) allies is needed,” he wrote on Telegram.