North Korea seems to have sent at least more than 1,000 soldiers to Russia earlier this year, they reported South Korean military on Thursday (27), demonstrating Pyongyang’s continuous support to the Moscow war against Ukraine.
The news arrives while Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Russenko has stated that a visit by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to Russia is being prepared, according to state media Tass.
The reinforcements, sent in January and February, add to the approximately 11,000 North Korean troops sent to Russia so far, said the heads of the South Korean joint staff.
About four thousand of them were killed or injured in combat, according to Seoul.
Pyongyang also sent a “significant amount” of short -range ballistic missiles and about 220 pieces of 170mm self -propelled obuses and multiple 240m rocket launchers, South Korea said.
The country has also announced that northern contributions “should increase according to the situation.”
While North Korea seems to be increasing its support for the Russian War, European leaders and allies are expected to meet in Paris on Thursday (27) to discuss help to Ukraine and long-term stability in the region amid unstable White House efforts to intermediate a ceasefire.
After the negotiations in Saudi Arabia this week, the US stated that both Russia and Ukraine agreed to stop using strength in the Black Sea and maintain a previously announced break in attacks on power infrastructure.
But the Russians imposed some long-range conditions to sign the partial truce, which is far short of a total ceasefire of 30 days initially proposed by Washington.
Kremlin said it would only implement agreements when sanctions on their banks and exports were suspended, showing the significant abyss in expectations between the negotiating parties.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, deepen security ties since they signed a historical defense pact last year and promised to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in case the other being attacked.
Putin’s leading security advisor Sergei Shoigu met Kim last week in Pyongyang, where he broadcast President Russian’s “most warm desires and greetings”, Russia’s state news agency Tass said.
“He pays maximum attention to the implementation of the agreements signed with you,” Shoigu told Kim, according to the media.
Deepening the partnership
The United States warned that Russia may be close to sharing advanced satellite and space technology with North Korea, as well as the military equipment and training it is already providing, in exchange for North Korean support to the war in Ukraine.
North Korean troops have been sent to the Kursk Russian region to repel Ukraine raid since at least November. But they withdrew from the front lines in January after reports of downtime, reported Ukrainian authorities.
South Korean legislator Yoo Yong-Won, who visited Ukraine in late February, said about 400 North Korean soldiers in Russia were killed and at least 3,600 injured until February 26.
THE CNN Previously reported the brutal and almost suicidal tactics of the North Korean soldiers, who in some cases detonated grenades rather than being captured by the Ukrainian forces, and wrote promises of loyalty to Kim on the battlefield.
Since the beginning of the war, North Korea has also sent thousands of ammunition containers or ammunition material to Russia, and Moscow forces have launched North Korea missiles in Ukraine, US officials.
Meanwhile, Russia provides coal, food and medicine to the North Koreans, told ambassador Alexander Matsegora to the channel.
He also pointed out that children of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine spent vacation in North Korea last summer, and Moscow and Pyongyang are developing student exchanges.
North Korean drones
South Korean authorities echoed US concerns that the deepening of the partnership between Russia and North Korea could facilitate technology transfers to the Kim regime.
This week, Kim supervised a test of new AI attack drones, said the North Korean state news agency KCNA, and ordered them to be developed even more “according to the trend of modern war.”
Pyongyang also revealed a new recognition drone that could have come in part of Russia, reported the military of South Korea on Thursday (27).
South Korean joint-state spokesman Lee Seong-Jun said the aircraft model was modified from an original North Korean plane, but “internal equipment and these pieces may be related to Russia.”
The drones became a central weapon in the fight between Russia and Ukraine.
The number of Russian drone attacks in Ukraine fired from only 379 in May 2024 to almost 2,500 in November.
Amid negotiations in progress on a ceasefire, Ukraine and Russia continued to exchange attacks.
On Wednesday (26) at night, the Russian forces launched a massive drone attack in the city of Kharkiv, in the northeast of the country, injuring at least 21 people and damaging civil infrastructure, Ukrainian officials said.
“No country should go through this,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Telegram after the attack.
In an interview with Newsmax on Tuesday (25), US President Donald Trump has expressed that he believes Russia wants to end the war, but “it may be that they are rolling.”
This content was originally published in North Korea sent more than three thousand soldiers to Russia, says Seoul on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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