The intensification of North Korea’s military support for Russia focuses all the concerns of the international community, while Volodymyr Zelensky’s Ukraine seeks to obtain increased aid from its allies in the face of the advance of troops by Vladimir Putin.
South Korean intelligence services assured this Friday, October 18 that North Korea had deployed a first contingent of 1,500 soldiers of its special forces in Vladivostok, in the Russian Far East, and would send others soon.
If NATO said it was not able to confirm “at this stage” this alleged deployment, a senior official from the Ukrainian presidency told AFP that it showed a desire on the part of Moscow to seek a “more war”. larger and longer” in Ukraine, trying to “drag its allies there”. “This can complicate the situation” on the battlefield, added this official. “We demand an immediate and strong reaction from the Euro-Atlantic community and the world,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriï Sybiga wrote on X, calling in particular on the West to lift restrictions on employment long-range weapons and to “intercept” Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian territory. China, an ally of Pyongyang and Moscow, reiterated its hope for a “de-escalation” in Ukraine.
“The increase in cross-cooperation and military support from North Korea to the Russian war effort in Ukraine is very worrying,” declared Christophe Lemoine, spokesperson for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, this would above all demonstrate “the level of desperation” on Moscow’s side in its war against Ukraine.
Up to 12,000 North Korean troops
According to the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS), North Korea has decided to send up to 12,000 troops to help Russia. The NIS released detailed satellite images showing, according to it, the first deployment of these soldiers. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called an emergency meeting on the security situation on Friday.
Pyongyang’s growing support for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, which goes “beyond the transfer of military equipment and translates into troop deployments”, represents “a significant threat to the security not only of our country but also of the international community,” said the South Korean presidency in a statement.
In another statement, the NIS explained that it “detected from October 8 to 13 that North Korea transported its special forces to Russia in a Russian navy transport ship, confirming the start of the military participation of the North Korea” in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Also according to the NIS, several Russian landing ships and frigates have already completed the transport of the first contingent of North Korean troops, who are currently stationed at military bases in the Russian Far East. These soldiers “should be deployed to the front lines (of the Ukrainian conflict) as soon as they have completed their acclimatization training,” South Korean intelligence said. “This appears to be an attempt to hide the fact that they are North Korean soldiers by passing them off as Russian soldiers,” the NIS charged. According to the same source, more North Korean troops are expected to be sent soon and the North could send a total of 12,000 troops. “A second transport operation is expected to take place shortly,” the NIS added.
13,000 weapons containers
Visiting Berlin, US President Joe Biden called on NATO countries to “maintain their support” until Ukraine obtains “a just and lasting peace”, while Western aid shows signs of weaknesses and that the United States, in the event of Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election in November, could radically review its policy.
As relations between Pyongyang and Seoul have deteriorated in recent months, nuclear-armed North Korea has moved even closer to Russia, an ally of the North Korean regime since its creation after the Second World War. worldwide. South Korea and the United States have long claimed that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sends weapons used in Ukraine to Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Pyongyang in June, during which the two countries signed a mutual defense treaty whose details have not been revealed, fueling speculation about further arms transfers – which violate the series of sanctions taken by the UN against Russia and North Korea.
The NIS assured Friday that North Korea had “provided Russia with the equivalent of more than 13,000 containers of artillery ammunition, missiles, anti-tank rockets and other lethal weapons” since August. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he had information that North Korea was training some 10,000 troops to support Russia in its military campaign against kyiv. Ukrainian media recently reported that six North Korean servicemen were killed during a Ukrainian missile strike on a Russian-occupied area near Donetsk (eastern Ukraine) on October 3. South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said the information was “very likely” accurate at the time.
Hong Sung-pyo, a researcher at the Korea Institute of Military Affairs, said the North likely views Ukraine “as a conflict from which it can draw valuable intelligence” because “the North Korean army has mainly trained in in isolation”, using “obsolete weapons, and lack of experience abroad”.