SEOUL: North Korea has shipped 1,500 particular forces troops to Russia’s Far East for coaching and acclimatising at native army bases and can doubtless be deployed for fight within the conflict in Ukraine, South Korea’s spy company mentioned on Friday (Oct 18).
South Korea’s Nationwide Intelligence Service mentioned it had been working with the Ukrainian intelligence service and had used facial recognition synthetic intelligence know-how to determine North Korean officers in jap Ukraine’s Donetsk area supporting Russian forces firing North Korean missiles.
North Korea has shipped artillery rounds, ballistic missiles and anti-tank rockets to Russia in additional than 13,000 containers since August final 12 months, the company mentioned, primarily based on the remnants of weapons recovered from the battlefront in Ukraine.
In all, greater than eight million artillery and rocket rounds have been shipped to Russia, it mentioned.
“The direct army cooperation between Russia and North Korea that has been reported by overseas media has now been formally confirmed,” the spy company mentioned in an announcement.
Earlier, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol referred to as an unscheduled safety assembly with key intelligence, army and nationwide safety officers to debate North Korean troops’ involvement in Russia’s conflict towards Ukraine.
“The members … shared the view that the present state of affairs the place Russia and North Korea’s nearer ties have gone past the motion of army provides to precise dispatch of troops is a grave safety menace not solely to our nation however to the worldwide group,” Yoon’s workplace mentioned.
It mentioned South Korea, along with its allies, had been intently monitoring North Korea’s troop dispatch to Russia from the preliminary levels.
South Korea will reply to the North’s actions with all accessible means, it added, with out elaborating on what actions it’d take.
South Korea, which has emerged as a serious international arms exporter, promoting fighter jets, mechanised howitzers and missiles, has come beneath strain from some Western allies together with Washington to assist arm Ukraine with deadly weapons however has stopped in need of overtly doing so.
The US Home of Representatives intelligence committee chairman cited the South Korean report in a letter to President Joe Biden calling for a direct categorised briefing to the panel on the difficulty.
“These (North Korean) troops actions, if true, are alarming and are an excessive escalation of the battle in Ukraine,” wrote US Consultant Mike Turner. “They require a direct response from the US and our NATO allies to keep away from a widening battle.”
The White Home Nationwide Safety Council couldn’t affirm studies that North Korean troops had been combating for Russia, a spokesperson mentioned, but when true, “this might mark a harmful growth in Russia’s conflict towards Ukraine”.
Ramon Pacheco Pardo of King’s Faculty in London mentioned regardless of the gravity of the event, it might not be heavy sufficient to shift Seoul’s place.
“On the subject of South Korea, I feel that its crimson line is Russia offering help to North Korea that permits Pyongyang to considerably enhance its nuclear and missile programme, not North Korea’s help for Russia.”
