North Korean and Ukrainian soldiers clash for the first time

Troops from North Korea have joined Russia in its war against Ukraine, and they clashed with Ukrainian forces for the first time in Russia’s Kursk region.
According to The New York Times, the purpose of the engagement was likely to feel out weaknesses in the Ukrainian lines.
Since an incursion that began last summer, Ukrainian troops have held around 250 square miles of the Kursk region where the fighting took place.
This “small-scale” fighting between Ukrainian and North Korean troops signaled the start of Pyongyang’s direct involvement in the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II, Ukraine Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said, according to The Associated Press.
The North Korean troops were fighting together with Russia’s 810 Naval Infantry Brigade, per The New York Times.
Since the North Korean troops are mixed with Russian soldiers and are not clearly identified on their uniforms, Umerov said it is hard to know whether there were North Korean casualties, per the AP.
In a nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seemingly confirmed the addition of North Korean troops to the war.
“The first battles with North Korean soldiers mark a new chapter of global instability,” Zelensky said, according to The New York Times. “Together with the world, we must do everything to ensure that this Russian step toward expanding the war — this true escalation — becomes a loss.”
Intelligence assessments from the U.S., Ukraine and South Korea report that as many as 12,000 combat troops from North Korea are being sent to the war, per The New York Times.
Most of the North Korean troops have yet to see combat, but Ukrainian and Western officials see this as a major escalation of the war which started nearly two years ago.
The soldiers from North Korea first arrived by boat last month in Vladivostok and from there embarked west on the 4,000 mile journey to the Kursk region, per The New York Times.
The North Korean troops have been split into two units, one of assault troops and the other is made up of support troops to defend territory recaptured from Ukraine.
According to the AP, North Korea could deploy more troops from its army of 1.3 million soldiers to Russia.
This is not the first assistance North Korea has provided to Russia, since summer 2023 they have provided Russia with 16,000 shipping containers filled with artillery shells, missiles and rockets, per the Times.
In June, Vladmir Putin of Russia and Kim Jong Un of North Korea met and restored a treaty of “mutual defense and military cooperation” from the Cold War, according to The New York Times.