“If there is such a thing…I think it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law.”
The official state-controlled broadcaster, the Korean Central News Agency, carried a North Korean vice foreign minister’s statement on 25 October, marking the first known response by the regime to Western evidence of North Korean troops deploying to the conflict in Ukraine. In response, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister for Russia Affairs Kim Jong Gyu provided a nebulous answer that amounted to admitting that while Kim cannot answer the question of North Korean troops in Ukraine authoritatively, there would be no legal reason prohibiting North Korea from doing so. Importantly, Kim did not deny the story.
North Korea had several options for addressing this growing question. First, it could have stayed silent on the matter. Alternatively, it could have announced its troops in Ukraine in its trademark aggressive media style as a concrete example of growing North Korea-Russia cooperation and North Korean military power. It instead chose a third option, whereby it acknowledged people were asking questions while framing its justification as hypothetical. North Korea’s savvy media operators were doubtless aware of how such a statement would rock the global media environment—and it did.
The regime’s response is intriguing as it does not appear to solve any existing problem in the information domain. It is possible that North Korea was compelled to make a statement on the matter because, for example, party officials had begun asking questions, the regime was preparing additional soldiers to deploy, and/or the regime’s censors wanted to say something about the story before everyday North Koreans heard about it from unauthorized, and therefore illegal, sources. It is also plausible that Russia resisted North Korea’s acknowledgment in order to avoid portraying President Vladimir Putin as weak.
North Korea watchers should be on the lookout for supplementary statements from authoritative sources within the regime, such as (in increasing order of authority) the foreign or defense ministers, the cabinet or state affairs commission, Kim Jong Un’s sister Kim Yo Jong, and Kim Jong Un himself. As North Korea decides to selectively reveal more information about its operations, they are likely to do so according to this assessed media authoritativeness ladder.
Sources:
“조선민주주의인민공화국 외무성 김정규 로씨야담당 부상 최근 여론화되고있는 대로씨야파병설과 관련한 립장 발표 (Vice Foreign Minister for Russia Affairs of DPRK clarifies stand on rumor of troop dispatch to Russia),” KCNA (central state-owned broadcaster), 25 Oct 2024. http://kcna.kp/kp/article/q/1b5206685a5dd88f86da517afd511712.kcmsf
Kim Jong Gyu, vice foreign minister of the DPRK in charge of Russian affairs, gave the following answer to a question raised by KCNA on Friday as regards a rumor that the troops of the Korean People’s Army are dispatched to Russia which is recently drawing public attention in the world: “I heeded the rumor of the dispatch of KPA troops to Russia, which the world media is building up public opinion.”
The DPRK Foreign Ministry does not directly engage in the things of the Ministry of National Defence, and does not feel the need to confirm it separately.
If there is such a thing that the world media is talking about, I think it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law.
There will evidently exist forces which want to describe it as illegal one, I think.
OE Insight Summary:
PRK Foreign Ministry’s non-denial that it has troops in UKR is a curious response from a state-controlled media known for its bombast. The regime likely believed it had no choice but to say something given the growing evidence. It is the first known statement made by the PRK, and it would not have done so with Kim Jong Un’s approval.