SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — About 3,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia and they are now receiving training on drones and other equipment before being deployed to battlefields in Ukraine, South Korea’s spy chief told lawmakers Monday.
In a closed-door parliamentary committee briefing, National Intelligence Service Director Cho Tae-yong said another 1,500 North Korean troops have joined the 1,500 his agency estimated were in the country last week, according to lawmaker Park Sunwon, who attended the briefing.
Cho told lawmakers that his agency assessed that North Korea aims to deploy a total of 10,000 troops to Russia by December, Park told reporters.
Park cited Cho as saying the 3,000 North Korean soldiers sent to Russia have been split among multiple military bases and are in training. Cho told lawmakers that NIS believes they have yet to be deployed in battle, according to Park.
Speaking jointly with Park about the NIS briefing, lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun said that the NIS found that the Russian military is now teaching those North Korean soldiers how to use military equipment such as drones.
Lee cited the NIS chief as saying Russian instructors have high opinions of the morale and physical strength of the North Korean soldiers but think they will eventually suffer heavy causalities because they lack an understanding of modern warfare. Lee, citing Cho, said Russia is recruiting a large number of interpreters.
Lee said NIS has detected signs that North Korea is relocating family members of soldiers chosen to be sent to Russia to special sites to isolate them.
The NIS chief told lawmakers that North Korea hasn’t disclosed its troop dispatch to its own people. But there are rumors that the news is spreading to local residents, including those whose loved ones have been assigned Russian tours, Lee said, citing the NIS.
The NIS first publicized reports of North Korean troops being sent to Russia last week, saying the Russian navy had transported 1,500 North Korean special forces operators to Russia this month. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has earlier said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korean soldiers were being prepared to join the invading Russian forces.
The U.S. and NATO haven’t formally confirmed North Korea’s reported troop dispatch, but they’ve warned of the danger of such a development if true. Russia and North Korea have so far denied the troop movements.
“If it’s true that DPRK soldiers are joining Putin’s war against Ukraine, it certainly would mark a dangerous and highly concerning development,” Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson at the State Department, told a briefing Tuesday. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.
North Korea and Russia, embroiled in separate confrontations with the West, have been sharply boosting their cooperation in the past two years. In June, they signed a major defense deal requiring both countries to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked.
The NIS said last week that North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.
Reports that the North is sending troops to Russia stoked security jitters in South Korea. South Korean officials worry that Russia may reward North Korea by giving it sophisticated weapons technologies that could boost the North’s nuclear and missile programs that target South Korea.
South Korea said Tuesday it would consider supplying weapons to Ukraine in response to the North’s reported troop dispatch.
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