Kim Yong Hyun, South Korean Defense minister, told lawmakers on October 8 that North Korea will likely deploy regular troops to Ukraine in order to help Russia.
“Since Russia and North Korea signed a treaty similar to a military alliance,” the minister said at the parliament.
Moscow and Pyongyang are enhancing their military cooperation, as Russia looks for arms and other support to wage a full-scale war on Ukraine.
Kim responded that a recent Ukrainian report that North Korean servicemen were killed and wounded near the occupied Donetsk was also true.
Interfax-Ukraine reported that a group of North Korean soldiers had arrived in the Russian-held area of Ukraine on October 4, citing an intelligence source. Six people were reported to have been killed and three others injured in a rocket attack.
Kim told Politico that he believed there had been injuries and deaths among the North Korean troops stationed in Ukraine.
North Korea has supplied Russia with large quantities of artillery and ballistic missiles throughout the war. Moscow’s military plan requires large quantities to be fired of artillery shells in order to destroy the enemy’s positions or prepare for ground assaults.
Reports also suggest that North Korean police or military personnel will travel to the occupied Donbas to “join reconstruction efforts” in early 2023, and plans are being made to send military trainers to the region in July of this year.
During the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang in early this year, the two countries signed a pact on mutual defense.
Kim said that “the relations between Russia, North Korea and China are becoming almost as close as an alliance of military forces.”
As such, we could deploy more North Korean troops in the war.
There was no information on the size of the support that North Korean soldiers will provide to Russia in Ukraine.
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