South Korea says Pyongyang is reportedly making ready for ‘further deployment of troopers’ to assist Russia’s conflict efforts.
Greater than 1,000 North Korean troopers have been killed or wounded in Russia’s war with Ukraine, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Employees (JCS) has mentioned.
The announcement on Monday follows a report by Seoul’s spy company to parliamentarians final week, which mentioned a minimum of 100 North Korean troopers had been killed since getting into fight in December.
Pyongyang has despatched hundreds of troopers to bolster the Russian navy, together with to the Kursk border area, the place Ukrainian forces seized territory earlier this yr.
“By means of numerous sources of knowledge and intelligence, we assess that North Korean troops who’ve not too long ago engaged in fight with Ukrainian forces have suffered round 1,100 casualties,” the JCS mentioned in a press release.
Seoul, Washington and Kyiv have mentioned there are roughly 12,000 North Korean troopers in Russia.
Pyongyang is reportedly “making ready for the rotation or further deployment of troopers”, the JCS added.
Intelligence additionally means that the nuclear-armed North Korea is “producing and offering self-destructible drones” to Russia to additional help Moscow in its battle towards Ukraine, JCS famous.
North Korea has additionally been accused of providing missiles and artillery shells to Russia.
North Korea and Russia have strengthened their navy ties because the latter invaded Ukraine in February 2022. A landmark defence pact between Pyongyang and Moscow, signed in June, got here into power this month.
Specialists say North Korean chief Kim Jong Un is raring to acquire superior expertise from Russia and battle expertise for his troops.
On Thursday, Pyongyang lashed out at what it known as “reckless provocation” by the US and its allies for a joint assertion criticising North Korea’s assist for Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, together with the deployment of troops.
Final month, South Korea and Ukraine additionally introduced that they might deepen safety cooperation in response to the “menace” posed by the deployment of North Korean troops, however there was no point out of potential arms shipments from Seoul to Kyiv.
South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol mentioned earlier in November that Seoul was “not ruling out the potential for offering weapons” to Ukraine, which might mark a major shift in its longstanding coverage barring the sale of weapons to international locations in energetic battle.
