US Defence Secretary warns N. Korea would become co-belligerent if it joins Russia's combat operations

[Anchor]

The defense ministers of South Korea and the United States held a joint press conference and condemned the deployment of North Korean troops in unison.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense warned that if North Korean troops participate, they will become a belligerent country alongside Russia.

This means that they could be attacked with weapons provided by the United States.

Kim Kyung-soo reports.

[Report]

The United States believes that the deployment of North Korean troops to combat is imminent, especially as Russia has lost many troops in the Ukraine war.

The U.S. Secretary of Defense stated in a joint press conference following the regular security consultative meeting that some of the 10,000 deployed North Korean troops have already moved to the border area with Ukraine.

[Lloyd Austin/U.S. Secretary of Defense: "And I am increasingly concerned that the Kremlin plans to use these North Korean soldiers to support Russia's combat operations in Russia's Kursk region."]

Secretary Austin emphasized that if North Korea participates, Ukraine has the right to defend itself with weapons provided by the United States.

This means that these North Korean troops would also become a target.

[Lloyd Austin/U.S. Secretary of Defense: "If they are fighting, if they are attacking Ukrainian soldiers, then they are co-belligerents. They're a part of this fight. That's fairly easy to determine."]

Meanwhile, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun clarified that South Korea's deployment of troops to Ukraine is not being considered at all.

However, he emphasized that sending an observation team to Ukraine is a military obligation.

[Kim Yong-hyun/South Korean Defense Minister: "In particular, in the case of the Ukraine war, since North Korean troops are participating, we can analyze the combat trends of North Korean troops and utilize them as valuable information for our military in the future."]

The defense ministers of South Korea and the United States issued a joint statement after the security consultative meeting, stating that they "strongly condemn North Korea's deployment to Russia in unison."

This is Kim Kyung-soo reporting from Washington for KBS News.