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Military action if North Korea invades Ukraine: House intelligence chairman

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The U.S. should consider “direct military action” in Ukraine if North Korean troops invade, Rep. Mike Turner, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Wednesday.

“If North Korean troops invade the territory of Ukraine, the United States must seriously consider taking direct military action against North Korean troops,” Turner said in a statement published on X.

The US has supplied the Ukrainian army with weapons since the start of the war but has avoided military actions that would bring it into direct conflict with Russia. A conflict between the U.S. and Russia would affect all countries in NATO, including Canada and 28 European countries, according to the organization's Article 5, which stipulates that an attack on one is an attack on all.

His statement came after the United States said for the first time this week that it had evidence that North Korean troops were fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday there was “evidence” of North Korean troops in Russia and called their presence a “very, very serious problem.”

“If they are co-belligerents and have the intention to take part in this war on behalf of Russia, that is a very, very serious matter,” he told reporters on a trip to Rome.

More: North Korean shock troops in Ukraine? South Korea summons Russian ambassador over reports.

North Korean troops are “legitimate military targets,” White House says

If they join the fight in Ukraine, North Korean troops “will become legitimate military targets,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

Kirby said the U.S. believes North Korea sent at least 3,000 troops by boat to Vladivostok, a city on Russia's far east coast. The soldiers then moved to several military bases in eastern Russia.

“We do not yet know whether these soldiers will go into combat alongside the Russian military, but that is certainly a highly worrying probability,” he said. “After completing their training, these soldiers could travel to western Russia and fight against the Ukrainian military.”

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Polish President Andrzej Duda condemned the reported operation during a summit on Thursday.

“We agreed that North Korea's deployment of troops to Russia is a direct violation of UN Security Council resolutions and the UN Charter and constitutes a provocation that extends beyond the Korean Peninsula and Europe and threatens global security,” Yoon said .

Seoul consulted with the US on Monday about the alleged deployment. Kim Hong-kyun, South Korea's vice foreign minister, summoned the Russian ambassador the same day to condemn the “illegal military cooperation,” which he called a violation of international law and a threat to South Korea's security interests, according to a statement released by the Foreign Ministry .

“We will respond together with the international community by mobilizing all available resources against actions that threaten our core security interests,” he said.

South Korean lawmakers said Wednesday that there are believed to be 3,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia, a figure twice as high as the estimate made by South Korean intelligence last week. The spy agency said it worked with Ukrainian spies and used facial recognition technology and artificial intelligence to track North Korean military officers in Russia.

The Kremlin has denied the reports, calling them “fake news.” A North Korean UN official described them as “unfounded rumors” at a meeting on Monday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has deepened relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the start of the war in Ukraine. In a rare trip to North Korea in June, Putin signed a diplomatic defense pact with Kim, and Kim expressed support for the invasion of Ukraine.

North Korea has already provided large artillery shells to Russia's war effort.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. You can reach her by email at [email protected]. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.

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