South Korea says Pyongyang is reportedly getting ready for ‘extra deployment of troopers’ to assist Russia’s warfare efforts.
Greater than 1,000 North Korean troopers have been killed or wounded in Russia’s warfare with Ukraine, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Employees (JCS) has stated.
The announcement on Monday follows a report by Seoul’s spy company to parliamentarians final week, which stated at the very least 100 North Korean troopers had been killed since getting into fight in December.
Pyongyang has despatched 1000’s of troopers to strengthen the Russian navy, together with to the Kursk border area, the place Ukrainian forces seized territory earlier this 12 months.
“By way of varied sources of knowledge and intelligence, we assess that North Korean troops who’ve lately engaged in fight with Ukrainian forces have suffered round 1,100 casualties,” the JCS stated in a press release.
Seoul, Washington and Kyiv have stated there are roughly 12,000 North Korean troopers in Russia.
Pyongyang is reportedly “getting ready for the rotation or extra 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 struggle in opposition to Ukraine, JCS famous.
North Korea has additionally been accused of offering missiles and artillery shells to Russia.
North Korea and Russia have strengthened their navy ties for the reason that latter invaded Ukraine in February 2022. A landmark defence pact between Pyongyang and Moscow, signed in June, got here into drive this month.
Consultants say North Korean chief Kim Jong Un is keen to purchase superior expertise from Russia and battle expertise for his troops.
On Thursday, Pyongyang lashed out at what it referred to as “reckless provocation” by the USA and its allies for a joint assertion criticising North Korea’s assist for Russia’s warfare 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 “risk” 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 stated earlier in November that Seoul was “not ruling out the potential of offering weapons” to Ukraine, which might mark a big shift in its longstanding coverage barring the sale of weapons to international locations in energetic battle.