It is “highly likely” North Korea will send more troops to fight for Russia in Ukraine, said Seoul’s defense minister, commenting on reports of North Korean soldiers dying near Donetsk last week.
Kim Yong-hyun said: “The issue of deploying regular troops is highly likely, due to the mutual agreements that resemble a military alliance between Russia and North Korea.”
South Korea’s defense minister added deaths could be expected, saying: “We assess that the occurrence of casualties among North Korean officers and soldiers in Ukraine is highly likely, considering various circumstances.”
Yong-hyun, also told his parliament: “More North Korean troops could be deployed in the war, from how we look at it.”
Ukrainian outlets reported that six North Korean military officers were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack near Donetsk on October 3. A Russian Telegram channel has also said that three other North Korean military officers were injured in the missile attack and are receiving treatment in Moscow.
North Korea has been a strong ally for Russia throughout the war, sending 13,000 containers of arms.
South Korea’s defense minister Kim Yong-hyun speaking at a plenary session on September 11 in Seoul. Yong-hyun recently predicted that North Korea will deploy more troops to fight for Russia against Ukraine.
Lee Jin-man/Associated Press
Both Russia and Pyongang have denied accusations that North Korea has been sending arms throughout the war.
Newsweek reached out to the North Korean Embassy in the UK and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment via email.
North Korea recently expressed support for Russia and denounced Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s claim that Russia has made the country an accomplice in the war.
Kim Yo Jung, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has said: “The absurdity of accusing our country of being an ‘accomplice’ to the war in Ukraine, where the evil Zelensky gang is slaughtering innocent Russians, using junk weapons supplied by the U.S. and the West, is a reckless political provocation that cannot be justified by anything.”
Recent posts on Telegram say that Chinese mercenaries have also been fighting for the Kremlin and that two Chinese nationals nicknamed “Sprite” and “Cola” died last week. China has denied providing military aid in the form of weapons or soldiers to Russia.
Russia has also been accused of enlisting foreign nationals to fight in the war against Ukraine from Cuba, Nepal, India, and Somalia since 2022.
Kyiv’s forces also deploy foreign fighters, and as of February, 20,000 foreigners were fighting alongside Ukrainian troops, including many from the U.S, the U.K, Canada, and Poland, according to Ukraine’s information agency Ukrinform.
Volunteers have come from 55 countries globally, including Brazil, Finland, Australia, South Korea.
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