Hundreds of North Korean troops have been caught on camera at a Russian training grown, sparking fears they’ll be sent to Ukraine.
For at least a week, South Korea has warned that its northern neighbour is no longer sending just missiles and munitions to help Russia’s war there.
Now North Korea is accused of supplying manpower, with an agreement to ship up to 12,000 troops to aid its fellow dictatorship’s landgrab.
The first 1,500 were shipped on Russian navy vessels to the eastern port city of Vladivostok from October 8 to 13, with more soon to follow, the National Intelligence Service claimed.
Head of Ukrainian military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov warned 11,000 were already there and will be combat ready by next month.
Around a quarter of them may be sent to Kursk, where a surprise Ukrainian counterattack captured more than 700 miles of Russian territory in August.
They will join a much smaller contingent of personnel sent to support the operation of North Korean-supplied equipment in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed.
Russian government spokesperson Dmitry Peskov last week dismissed claims of North Korean troops joining the fight as a ‘hoax’.
But footage and satellite images showing some already on Russian soil appears to confirm fears they are undergoing training before deployment on the frontlines in Europe.
The video of marching troops, filmed from behind barbed wire and shared on pro-war Russian social media channels, has been identified as having been filmed in Sergeevka, Primorksy, near Russia’s border with North Korea.
They have been issued Russian uniforms, Russian-made weapons, and Russian IDs claiming they are from eastern Russian regions inhabited by Turkic ethnic groups bearing resemblance to Koreans, the NIS claimed.
A spokesperson for the agency said: ‘The suspicions raised by foreign media outlets regarding ‘direct military cooperation between Russia and North Korea’ have been officially confirmed.
‘We will continue to track and confirm movements in military cooperation between Russia and North Korea through close intelligence cooperation with allied countries.’
North Korea, which blew up roads linking it to South Korea on Tuesday amid rising tensions there, has one of the largest militaries in the world.
Some 1.2million troops serve in its ranks, but they lack combat experience, and their weapons are thought to be prone to defects and inaccuracy.
This has led Ukrainian intelligence to speculate they will be deployed against Ukraine in mass offensives, akin to the meatgrinders of the Wagner mercenaries, rather than precision attacks.
It is possible North Korea has secured security guarantees from Russia, an increasingly close ally,
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