Seoul, South Korea – The South Korean intelligence service has discovered that North Korea has sent 12,000 troops, including special operations forces, in support Russian war against UkraineAccording to news reports Friday, this is a development that could draw a third country into the war and intensify a standoff between North Korea and the West.
Yonhap news agency quoted the National Intelligence Service as saying they have already left the country and formed into four brigades. Other South Korean media published similar reports.
If confirmed, this would be North Korea’s first major participation in a foreign war. North Korea has 1.2 million troops, one of the largest armies in the world, but lacks actual combat experience.
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North Korean troops deployed in Russia are stationed at military bases in the country’s Far East and will likely be deployed “on the front lines” in Ukraine after their training, NIS said on Friday, according to Agence France-Presse.
Many experts question how much deploying North Korean troops would help Russia, citing North Korea’s outdated equipment and lack of battlefield experience.
Experts also said North Korea likely received Russian promises to provide security support to Pyongyang in its intense confrontations with the US and South Korea over its advancing nuclear program.
During a meeting in Pyongyang in JuneNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a pact establishing mutual military assistance if either country is attacked, in what was considered the two countries’ biggest defense deal since the end of the Cold War War.
NOS did not immediately confirm the report, but South Korea’s presidential office said in a statement that President Yoon Suk Yeol had chaired an emergency meeting earlier Friday to discuss North Korea’s troop deployment to Ukraine. The statement said meeting participants agreed that North Korea’s troop deployment poses a serious threat to the security of South Korea and the international community.
But the presidential office did not provide further details, such as when and how many North Korean soldiers were sent to Ukraine and what role they are expected to play.
Russia has denied using North Korean troops in the war. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the claims during a press conference last week as “another piece of fake news”, according to Russian media.
Ukrainian media reported earlier this month that six North Koreans were among those killed after a Ukrainian missile attack in the partially occupied eastern Donetsk region on October 3.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his government has intelligence that 10,000 troops from North Korea are prepared to join Russian forces in the fight against his country. He warned that a third nation wading into hostilities could turn the conflict into a “world war.”
“We have received information from our intelligence services that North Korea has sent tactical personnel and officers to Ukraine,” Zelensky told reporters at NATO headquarters. “They are preparing 10,000 soldiers in their country, but they have not yet moved them to Ukraine or Russia.”
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the Western alliance “has no evidence that North Korean soldiers are involved in the fighting. But we do know that North Korea is supporting Russia in many ways, through arms supplies, technology supplies and innovation, to support them in the fight.” the war effort. And that is very worrying.”
The US, South Korea and their partners have accused Pyongyang of supplying Moscow with artillery shells, missiles and other equipment to fuel the war against Ukraine.
Outside officials and experts say North Korea may have received much-needed food, economic and technological assistance in return aimed at upgrading Kim’s nuclear-armed military. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have repeatedly denied the existence of an arms deal between the countries.
