North Korea reportedly set to put tens of thousands of boots on the ground in Ukraine
Seoul, South Korea - North Korea has decided to send "large-scale troops" to support Russia in its war against Ukraine, South Korean reports said Friday, citing intelligence sources.
"The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it has learned that the North has recently decided to send four brigades of 12,000 soldiers, including special forces, to the war in Ukraine," the Yonhap news agency said.
The NIS declined to confirm the report to AFP.
"The movement of North Korean troops has already begun," an NIS source told Yonhap.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he had seen evidence that North Korea was training 10,000 soldiers to support Russia in its fight against Kyiv.
"They are preparing on their land, 10,000 soldiers, but they didn't move them already to Ukraine or to Russia," Zelensky said after meeting NATO defense ministers.
He suggested that Russia is relying on North Korean troops to compensate for its substantial losses, as many young Russians seek to avoid conscription.
Reports that North Korean troops are already present in Ukraine
South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol convened an emergency security meeting Friday on the move by Pyongyang.
The meeting said that the close military ties between Russia and North Korea had gone "beyond the transfer of military supplies to actual troop deployments".
This development poses "a significant security threat not only to our country but also to the international community," the president's office said in a statement.
Pyongyang and Moscow have taken their longstanding alliance to a new level since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with President Vladimir Putin making a rare visit to Pyongyang in June to sign a mutual defense treaty.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian media reported that six North Korean military officers were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Russian-occupied territory near Donetsk on October 3.
Cover photo: via REUTERS