Russia’s military interaction with North Korea does not violate international law, the country’s representative to the United Nations told the UN Security Council, calling reports that North Korean troops were present at the front lines in the war against Ukraine “barefaced lies”.

“I would like to underscore that the Russian interaction with DPRK in the military and other areas is in line with international law and is not a violation of it. It’s not aimed against third countries,” Vasily Nebenzya said at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, using the acronym of the country’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

This came on the same day the United States and South Korean defence chiefs called for North Korea to withdraw its troops from Russia, where Washington says some 10,000 of them have been deployed for possible use against Ukrainian forces.

“I call upon them to withdraw their troops out of Russia,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the Pentagon, speaking alongside his South Korean counterpart, Kim Yong-hyun, who urged the “immediate withdrawal” of Pyongyang’s forces.

Austin said the US will “continue to work with allies and partners to discourage Russia from employing these troops in combat”, but warned Moscow is likely to do so.

The Pentagon said the previous day that a “small number” of North Korean troops have already been deployed in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops have been conducting a ground offensive since August.

Speaking at the UNSC meeting, Russia’s Nebenzya said: “These statements about the North Korean soldiers in our front should not surprise no one, because they’re all barefaced lies and they are trying to distract.”

He later added: “Even if everything that is being said about the cooperation between Russia and North Korea by our Western colleagues is true, why is it that the United States and allies are trying to impose on everyone the flawed logic that they have the right to help the [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy regime mobilise the military and intelligence of NATO, and Russia and its allies have no right to do a similar thing?”

North Korea’s UN ambassador Kim Song told the UNSC that the DPRK and Russia “are entitled to develop bilateral relations in all fields”.

He added that “the biggest threat to international peace and security at present is the acts of the United States and its allies against peace”.

Russia and North Korea have boosted their political and military alliance over the course of the Ukraine conflict. Both are under sanctions – Pyongyang for its nuclear weapons programme and Moscow for its war against Kyiv. North Korea’s move to tighten its relationship with Russia has triggered alarms across the globe.

Key concerns

At the Pentagon, Austin said officials are discussing what to do about the troop deployment, which he said had the potential to broaden or lengthen the conflict in Ukraine. When asked if it could prompt other nations to get more directly involved in the conflict, he acknowledged that it could “encourage others to take action”, but he provided no details.

South Korea’s Kim said he does not necessarily believe the deployment will trigger war on the Korean Peninsula but could increase security threats between the two nations.

Ukraine’s UN ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told the UNSC that Russia’s moves with North Korea were “another step taken by Moscow to further escalate its war against Ukraine”.

“Building the interoperability of the Russian and DPRK armies constitutes a threat to Europe, the Korean peninsula, its neighbours and beyond,” he added.

A key concern is what North Korea will get in return for providing the troops. But officials have yet to say specifically what Pyongyang may have requested or what Moscow has offered.

Experts have said that in return for these forces, North Korea is likely aiming to acquire military technology, ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, plus possible security guarantees from Moscow.

A Ukrainian official told The Associated Press news agency that North Korean troops are currently stationed 50km (31 miles) away from the Ukrainian border with Russia. The official was not authorised to disclose the information publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

At the UNSC meeting, Kyslytsya claimed up to 12,000 North Korean servicemen are stationed at five training grounds of the Russian Armed Forces. He added that between October 23 and 28, at least seven aircraft carrying up to 2,100 soldiers flew from the Eastern Military District to Russia’s border with Ukraine.

North Korea has also provided munitions to Russia, and earlier this month, the White House released images it said were of North Korea shipping 1,000 containers of military equipment there by rail.

Fighting continues

Meanwhile, on the ground, Russia and Ukraine exchanged scores of drone strikes on Wednesday.

A Russian guided bomb struck the fourth floor of a high-rise apartment building in Kharkiv, causing casualties, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.

Earlier, Ukraine’s air force said that Russia launched 62 drones and one missile overnight, adding that 33 of them were intercepted and 25 were jammed. The attack injured nine people in Kyiv, according to the city administration.

Russian attacks also targeted other regions of Ukraine, killing at least four and injuring about 30 others over the past 24 hours, authorities said.

At the same time, Russian forces have pressed their slow-moving offensive in eastern Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defence announced the capture of the village of Kruhlyakivka in the Kharkiv region and said that air defences downed 25 Ukrainian drones over several regions in the country’s west and southwest.

The new attacks come as North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui travelled to Russia for talks that South Korea’s spy agency said could involve discussions on sending additional troops to Russia.