North Korea preparing to send more troops to Russia amid rising casualties in Ukraine war, says South Korea

After several reports suggested nearly 1,100 North Korean soldiers have already been killed in Ukraine war, North Korea is gearing up to send more troops and weapons to support Russia in its ongoing war against Ukraine.

According to a Euro News report, citing Yonhap news agency on Monday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) have indicated that North Korea is planning to provide further military assistance to Russia for its large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

This reinforcement is expected to comprise additional troops and military equipment, including kamikaze drones, added the report.

“A comprehensive assessment of multiple intelligence shows that North Korea is preparing to rotate or increase the deployment of troops (in Russia) while currently supplying 240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery,” Euro News quoted JCS as saying.

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Pyongyang has already provided 240mm multiple rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled howitzers to Russia, and was seen preparing to produce more suicide drones to be shipped there after leader Kim Jong Un guided a test last month.

“Suicide drones are one of the tasks that Kim Jong Un has focused on,” Reuters quoted a JCS official as saying, adding that the North had expressed its intention to give them to Russia.

Such drones have been widely used in the Ukraine war, and Kim ordered a mass production of the aerial weapons and an update of military theory and education, citing intensifying global competition.

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Seoul, Washington and Kyiv have said there are around 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia. The JCS said at least 1,100 of them had been killed or wounded, in line with last week’s briefing by South Korea’s spy agency which reported some 100 deaths with another 1,000 wounded in the Kursk region.

Pyongyang’s growing military ties with Moscow could pose greater threats to Seoul as it modernises its conventional forces, which are deemed inferior to the South’s, and gains combat experience, the official said.

Along the heavily fortified Korean border, the North has dispatched up to 10,000 soldiers to turn the area into a wasteland and install barriers and barbed wire in recent weeks, though the numbers fell to several hundred over the weekend, the JCS said.

The JCS released photos that it said showed a group of North Korean troops testing the electrified wire fence using a goat.

There is also a possibility, the JCS said, that the North will test-fire an intermediate-range hypersonic missile around year-end ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, while sending more garbage balloons to the South.

North Korea has launched thousands of balloons with bags of trash attached to them since late May, saying it was responding to balloons carrying propaganda leaflets flown by South Korean activists.

“With the backing of Russia, they’ll likely try to stage various strategic provocations next year, such as launching intercontinental ballistic missiles and conducting a nuclear test to enhance its negotiating power with the US,” the JCS official was quoted as saying.

On Monday, South Korea’s acting president Han Duck-soo had a telephone call with new US Forces Korea commander Xavier T. Brunson.

Han emphasised the importance of South Korea and the US jointly maintaining a thorough security posture, as North Korea might “misjudge” Seoul’s “serious situation” and commit various provocations such as firing ballistic missiles, Han’s office said in a statement.

Brunson stressed the importance of action, not words, and said they would ensure a posture to respond to any threat through practical joint exercises, Han’s office said.

With inputs from agencies