On-the-Record Press Gaggle by White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby

Via Teleconference

12:42 P.M. EDT

MODERATOR: Hey, everyone. Thanks for joining us on a Friday afternoon. Kirby has a few words here at the top, and then we'll take some questions.

MR. KIRBY: Good afternoon, everybody. Sorry we're a little bit late. Had some technical difficulties here.

But I just wanted to start by letting you know that, today, our National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, met with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts: the Republic of Korea's National Security Advisor, Shin Won-sik, and the Japanese National Security Advisor, Akiba Takeo.

They met here in Washington, D.C. It's the second trilateral national security advisors meeting since the leaders of all three countries met at Camp David back in August of '23, and it's the fifth one of this administration.

The three national security advisors reaffirmed their commitment to address common regional and global challenges and to promote security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

In particular, the national security advisors expressed grave concern over troop deployments by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to Russia, potentially for use on the battlefield against Ukraine. This deployment is the latest in a series of concerning indicators of deepening military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia, including arms and ballistic missile transfers that are in direct violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The national security advisors call on Russia and the DPRK to cease these actions that only serve to expand the security implications of Russia's brutal and illegal war beyond Europe and into the Indo-Pacific.

They also -- all three national security advisors strongly oppose any unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force or coercion in the waters of the Indo-Pacific, and they underscored their commitment to the global maritime order based on international law, as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

National Security Advisor Sullivan, National Security Advisor Shin, and National Security Advisor Akiba resolved to institutionalize efforts to build a new era of trilateral partnership that will be a force for peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific and beyond for years to come. They committed to work toward holding another trilateral leaders' summit at the earliest opportunity.

And with that, we can take some questions.

MODERATOR: Thank you. And again, as Kirby said at the top, we're having some tech glitches, so just bear with us while we get through questions.

Our first question will go to Barak with Axios.

Q: Hi, John. Thank you for doing this. CENTCOM announced, I think an hour ago, about another squadron of F-16s that arrived in its area of responsibility in what, at least to me, seems to be as a signal of the preparation for an Israeli attack on Iran. Anything you can tell us about that?

MR. KIRBY: I really can't offer you more detail than CENTCOM did, Barak. As you know, and I think they expressed, our commitment to Israel's security remains ironclad, and that means, as appropriate, making force posture changes that we think need to be made to help Israel defend itself. And I don't think I can really go beyond that.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Our next question will go to Ron Kampeas. You should be able to unmute yourself.

Q: Yeah, can you hear me now?

MODERATOR: Yep.

Q: Great. Thank you for taking this call. So, two questions, and I realize they're a little bit out of date. But when Yahya Sinwar was killed, of course Netanyahu gave a speech in Hebrew and in English. I didn't hear the English, but in Hebrew he said, "Those who said that we should not have gone into Rafah, those who said -- were calling for a ceasefire, now they know they are wrong." And that seems to me directly -- directed particularly at you guys, at the White House. And I wondered if you had any reaction to that.

And the second question is: There's talk of holding Sinwar's body in exchange for hostages. I just wondered if you had any comment on that.

MR. KIRBY: No comment on your second one.

And on your first one: Look, again, I don't think it's useful for us to, you know, get into publicly parsing everything that the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister's office is saying. They can speak for themselves, as they do.

I would just tell you that the Prime Minister knows very well how strongly Joe Biden supports Israel and how stridently he's been working to make sure that they have what they need to defend themselves, including the support that went to the Israeli Defense Forces while they were operating in Rafah.

And just to put a fine point on it, we did not tell the Israelis that they could not operate in Rafah. So, if that's the public narrative out there, or that's the impression that people have, I can assure you that that's not the case. We did express concerns, of course, about densely populated areas and the damage that that could have and the impact on civilians, but there was no mandate by the United States that they couldn't operate in Rafah. And even as they did operate in Rafah, they continued to get support from the United States.

Q: Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Our next question will go to Akayla with Bloomberg.

Q: Hey, John. I'm wondering if you could say what options the U.S. has to respond to North Korea sending troops to Russia. Is there anything that you guys would have the power to do?

MR. KIRBY: We're in discussions with allies and partners right now, Akayla, on this development. We are still trying to learn more about what the North Koreans and the Russians are actually up to.

And so we are, again, actively consulting allies and partners. And I wouldn't want to get ahead of those conversations and preview what options are being considered and talked about.

But as I said the other day, you know, you'll hear more from us in coming days about where we are on this and what we and our allies and partners think is the appropriate next steps.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Our next question will go to Sara with CBS.

Q: Hey, Kirby. Thanks for doing this. Can you confirm reports that Elon Musk and Putin have held phone calls with each other? Is that something the U.S. government has been tracking? If so, how many calls have they had? And does the U.S. know what they've discussed?

And just in general, is the U.S. government concerned that a private citizen with a security clearance is having conversations with Putin?

MR. KIRBY: Yeah, I've seen the reporting out of the Wall Street Journal. I'm not in a position to corroborate the veracity of those reports, and we would refer you to Mr. Musk to speak to his private communications.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Our next question will go to David Klepper.

Q: Yes, hello. Thank you for doing this today. There have been reports that Russia is providing targeting data to the Houthis via Iran's Revolutionary Guard to target ships in the Red Sea. And I'm wondering if you can confirm those reports and tell us a little bit about what the U.S. is doing in response.

MR. KIRBY: No, I cannot confirm those reports. What we're doing is operating in the Red Sea with a coalition of some 20 other nations to continue to knock down the missiles and drones that the Houthis continue to fire at commercial shipping there. And our presence remains robust there. Our capabilities remain significant. And as Secretary Austin himself said earlier this week, we are and we'll continue to do everything we can to degrade Houthi capability in that regard.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Our next question will go to Joe Barnes.

Q: Thank you. Joe Barnes from The Daily Telegraph newspaper. Two questions, if I may, John.

Did Jake Sullivan's South Korean counterpart tell him anything new today in their meeting? If so, could you share any details about the North Korean deployments inside Russia?

And then secondly, where are discussions with the UK and Ukraine about using U.S. enablers to fire British Storm Shadow missiles at targets inside Russia, please? Thank you very much.

MR. KIRBY: On your first question, I certainly won't get into intelligence assessments and discussions at a classified level that may have taken place between the national security advisors.

I think you know very well the South Koreans have been watching this development as closely as we have been, and they have expressed, as we have expressed, deep concerns about the potential here for North Korean troops to be used in the fight against Ukraine. Again, no surprise, I don't think to anybody, that when I talk about discussing this with our allies and partners, the South Koreans are right at the top of the list of the allies and partners that we're having discussions with.

So it absolutely came up in the meeting today with the three national security advisors, no question. But as for the exact details of what was shared between us, I will leave inside the room.

On your second question: Again, I can't -- I won't certainly pretend to be qualified to speak for the UK in any way, shape, or form. All I can do is tell you, from the United States' perspective, there's been no change to our policy about the use of long-range strike to hit targets deep inside Russia.

We are in constant communication, not only with the UK and the Germans, as the President was in Germany on Friday of last week and had a chance to meet with other leaders of the Quad, including Prime Minister Starmer, but also our counterparts in France and Germany as well.

We continue to talk about what Ukraine needs on the battlefield, and we continue to talk directly with the Ukrainians about what their needs are. But I'm not in a position today to speak to any changes in the President's policy with respect to long-range strike.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Our next question will go to Jake Epstein.

Q: Hey, thanks for having this. President Zelenskyy said today that the first North Korean soldiers are expected to deploy by Russia to combat zones as early as Sunday. I'm wondering if the White House can confirm this or has any additional information on the potential deployment.

And as a second question, I'm wondering if there's any information you can provide about the aftermath of last week's strikes on the underground Houthi targets, the ones that involved the U.S. bombers. Thanks.

MR. KIRBY: On your second question, what more do you want?

Q: I mean, can we get, like, a battle damage assessment? Is there sort of an indication of, you know, what the strikes were able to degrade, how many weapons they were able to take out?

MR. KIRBY: Yeah, I'd refer you to the Pentagon on that. They do battle damage assessments. That's their job. So, I'll let them speak to that.

The only thing I would say on that one is that, as I hope was demonstrated, not only do we have unmatched capability to target the Houthis, but that, as Secretary Austin said, we're going to continue to do what we have to do to degrade their capability to go after commercial shipping. And this was -- those strikes were an example of how serious we're taking that task. But as for the battle damage assessment, I would refer you to the Pentagon.

On your first question, I'll say this: We're monitoring this very, very closely, and we're continuing to consult with the intelligence community to see what more we can glean.

I will go so far today as to say that it is possible that there are now more than 3,000 troops from North Korea that have been dispatched to Russia for outfitting and for training. The other day, I said it was about 3,000. We believe that it's possible, and we're looking into reports, that the number could be north of that.

I can't give you a specific estimate at this time, but as we said the other day, it was entirely possible that that number could change, and we are closely examining the reports about that, in fact, happening.

On where they're going to go and what they're going to be deployed to do, if they're going to be deployed, I don't have firm intelligence assessments that I can speak to today about that. We're still, again, watching closely to see what's afoot.

That said, we believe that it is certainly possible, and I'd just go so far as to say perhaps even likely, that at least some of these North Korean troops could be deployed to the Kursk area. But in what capacity, for what purpose, that still remains unclear.

So, this is going to be -- and, I mean, I hope it's coming across this way -- this is going to be an evolving situation. We will share with you what we can, and we'll give you an honest assessment of our confidence in that as we go along. But that's kind of where we are here on Friday afternoon.

Q: Great, thanks.

MODERATOR: Awesome. Thanks, everyone. And thanks for joining. As always, if anything comes up, reach out to the press distro, and we'll get back to you as soon as we can. Thank you.

12:57 P.M. EDT