MONITORING (SW) – North Korea has decided to send a “large-scale” troop deployment to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine, with 1,500 special forces already in Russia’s Far East and undergoing training, Seoul’s spy agency has said.
The announcement sparked anger in Kyiv, which demanded a “strong reaction” from its European and US allies, and concern in Paris. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the move smacked of “desperation” from Moscow, reported Express Tribune.
Seoul’s National Intelligence Service released detailed satellite images it said showed the first deployment of elite North Korean soldiers being moved by Russian military vessels to Vladivostok.
Seoul’s spy agency said that between October 8 and 13, it had detected “North Korea transported its special forces to Russia via a Russian Navy transport ship, confirming the start of North Korea’s military participation” in Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The first contingent of troops — which South Korean media said were from an elite unit under North Korea’s Special Operations Forces, also known as the “Storm Corps” — are currently stationed in military bases across Russia’s Far East.
The special forces “are expected to be deployed to the front lines (of the Ukraine conflict) as soon as they complete acclimatization training,” NIS said.
Thousands of North Korean troops are being prepared to fight on Russia’s behalf in Ukraine and some North Korean officers have already been deployed there, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week.
The United States and other allies of Ukraine have long accused North Korea of sending weapons to Russia, and in recent days Zelenskyy has said North Korean personnel are being sent as well. “We know about 10,000 soldiers of North Korea that they are preparing to send fight against us,” he said, describing it as: “first step to the world war”.
