Pyongyang [North Korea], October 20 : North Korea has sent 1,500 soldiers to Russia for training, marking its first military involvement in Moscow's war against Ukraine, CNN reported on Saturday citing South Korea's National Intelligence Service.
South Korea's spy agency revealed that these special forces fighters travelled on seven Russian ships, and notably, had been personally inspected by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, as per the agency's statment.
Further, the agency stated, "Large Russian transport aircraft have also been frequently travelling between Vladivostok and Pyongyang."
The revelations follow repeated warnings from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea has resulted in North Korean troops joining the war, as per CNN.
Meanwhile, One of the three pictures that South Korea's intelligence agency disclosed as evidence of North Korea's troop deployment to Russia was captured by a satellite that the South has been operating, a government source said today as cited by Yonhap.
Meanwhile, US Defence Secretary LLoyd Austin has said he cannot confirm North Korea's troop deployment to Russia, but if true, it would be concerning. Austin made the remark Saturday to reporters in Naples of Italy where he attended a meeting of the defence ministers from the Group of Seven countries, according to a Reuters report
While adressing reporters at a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday, Zelenskyy affirmed, "From intelligence that I have ... they are preparing 10,000 soldiers, different soldiers, land forces, technical personnel."
"We know about 10,000 soldiers of North Korea ... are preparing to (start) fighting against us. This is really an urgent thing, I spoke about it with the United States, I spoke about it with all the leaders."
Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine's foreign minister, said Friday that North Korea "is aiding Russian aggression against Ukraine with weapons and personnel. Not mercenaries."
Sybiha accused Moscow of seriously escalating its "aggression" by "involving DPRK on a war party scale," referring to North Korea by the initials of its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
According to CNN, in a letter to US President Joe Biden on Friday, US House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Turner said the reported troop movements were "alarming" and "an extreme escalation of the conflict in Ukraine."
"The troop movements, if true ... require an immediate response from the United States and our NATO allies," the congressman wrote while calling for an "immediate classified briefing" from the White House on the situation.
Meanwhile, South Korean media reported that the North would send a total of 12,000 troops, although this figure was not included in the NIS statement.
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