According to a South Korean official, “engineering troops” from North Korea will be sent to regions occupied by the Russian army in Ukraine. This support would come in addition to the arms deliveries already made by Pyongyang for the benefit of Moscow.
A new stage in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict? A few days after the visit of the head of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, to North Korea, a South Korean official claims that Pyongyang is preparing to send soldiers to Ukraine. As a reminder, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un signed, during this meeting on June 19, an “agreement on joint assistance in the event of military aggression.”
So, “North Korea should send a large number of “engineering troops” to Donetsk [un des territoires occupés par l’armée russe] from next month »declared the government official on the microphone of the private South Korean television channel TV Chosun. “The goal is to rebuild a city destroyed by battle.” These soldiers, he adds, will receive a monthly pay of 800 US dollars (around 746 euros) – a significant financial windfall for this internationally isolated country.
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But according to a military expert interviewed by the kyiv economic newspaper, RBK-Ukraine
, For Moscow, reconstruction is not a priority. “It is not in this area that the Russian army needs reinforcements the most, but on the front line, for offensive operations.”warns Ivan Kirichevskyi.
Delivery of weapons and missiles
If, for the moment, the Kremlin denies the use of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine – the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, having affirmed ” ignore “ this information – in the United States, the threat is being taken seriously. In its latest war bulletin, dated June 26, the think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) estimates that support from the North Korean army could “freeing up Russian combat power for offensive operations along the front line.” “The North Korean army currently has ten engineering brigades and could send three or four of them into the field”further warns the ISW.
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This support would be added to the approximately 12,000 containers of weapons and missiles already sent by Pyongyang to Russia, according to the UN. And these deliveries, following the agreement signed between the two parties, should also continue: “North Korea will intensify its deliveries of military equipment to Russia and firmly supports its initiative in Ukraine”underlines Barthélémy Courmont, research director in charge of the Asia-Pacific Program at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS), on the agency’s website.
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For its part, kyiv deplores the lack of reaction from the international community in the face of the threat of this new alliance. “Not only has North Korea quietly freed itself from sanctions and actively engaged in military cooperation with the Russian Federation, but it is now sending special engineering troops to participate directly in the war against Ukraine on the side of the aggressor.”protested the spokesman for the Ukrainian presidency, Mikhailo Podolyak, on his Telegram account. And the representative noted, wearily: “Nobody says anything.”
