Seoul [South Korea], February 27 : North Korea appears to have deployed additional troops to support Russia's war against Ukraine, South Korea's spy agency said on Thursday, local media reported.
Seoul's National Intelligence Service (NIS) in a press noted said that that number of recently deployed troops is being assessed as per a report in South Korean news agency Yonhap.
The assessment follows a news report that between 1,000 and 3,000 North Korean troops were newly transported to Kursk via Russian cargo ships and military airplanes between January and February this year in the second round of such troop deployment, the Yonhap reported.
Seoul's spy agency had earlier assessed that North Korean troops deployed to Russia had been absent from combat in the Kursk region since mid-January, likely due to heavy casualties among them. The NIS estimated that about 300 were killed and some 2,700 others were injured.
In the beginning of this month Colonel Oleksandr, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military's Special Operations Forces, told CNN that North Korean troops have not been seen on the battlefront for the past three weeks.
"The presence of DPRK troops has not been observed for about three weeks, and they were probably forced to withdraw after suffering heavy losses," Oleksandr Kindratenko was cited as telling CNN.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak had also noted the reports of the same.
About 12,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia, according to Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence reports, which say around 4,000 of those troops have been killed or injured.
According to CNN, which cited the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington DC-based think tank, Ukraine as of January 26 has made advancements in Kursk. On the other hand, the Russian military said that it had recaptured the region.
In November last year Russian President Vladimir Putin signed legislation to ratify a bilateral treaty with North Korea, which includes a promise of mutual military assistance if either country is attacked.
Russia and North Korea have stepped up military cooperation since the beginning of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022.
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