North Korea has sent 1,500 additional soldiers to Russia, South Korean intelligence said on Wednesday, a way for Pyongyang to come to Russia's military aid on the Ukrainian front.
Up to 10,000 North Korean troops deployed in Russia
“It is estimated that 1,500 more troops have been deployed to Russia,” bringing their total to 3,000, MP Park Sun-won, a member of the parliamentary committee on intelligence, told the press after the meeting. a briefing with the National Intelligence Service (NIS). Some 10,000 North Korean troops are to be deployed to Russia by December, Park Sun-won added.
The NIS said Friday that Pyongyang was sending “troops in large numbers” to support Russia in its offensive in Ukraine, as part of a military alliance with Moscow that could upset the security balance on the Korean peninsula.
A “baseless rumor” according to Pyongyang
North Korea has denied providing Russia with troops for its Ukraine offensive, with a Pyongyang representative to the UN calling the claim a “baseless rumor”. Seoul summoned the Russian ambassador to South Korea on Monday to demand the “immediate” withdrawal of the North Korean soldiers sent, according to him.
Berlin summons North Korean representative
The German Foreign Ministry summoned North Korea's charge d'affaires on Wednesday for the latter's “support” for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to the German Foreign Ministry, “if the information about North Korean soldiers in Ukraine is true and North Korea supports Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine with troops, this would be serious and constitutes a violation of international law,” he wrote on X. Such support “directly threatens Germany’s security and European peace,” according to Berlin.
After more than two and a half years of war, Ukraine finds itself in a critical military situation, its forces retreating for months on the Eastern Front and Russia continuing to shell its cities for lack of sufficient anti-aircraft defenses.
