KYIV: Ukraine on Wednesday called on North Korean troops deployed to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine to surrender and save their lives, after South Korea said over a thousand more troops had been deployed by Pyongyang.
South Korean lawmaker Park Sun-won said, after a briefing by his country’s National Intelligence Service (NIS), that 1,500 more troops from North Korea had gone to Russia, taking the total number of North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces to 3,000.
Park Sun-won warned that the number of North Korean troops deployed to Russia could reach 10,000 by December. The deployment is part of a military cooperation agreement between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, signed in June.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military intelligence issued a statement addressed to the soldiers from the Korean People’s Army, urging them not to sacrifice their lives for a foreign cause. “You must not die senselessly in a foreign land,” the statement read. “You must not repeat the fate of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who will never return home.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on international partners to confront the new threat posed by Pyongyang’s support for Russia. “If Russia is still able to make this war bigger and longer, then everyone in the world who is not helping to force Russia to peace is actually helping Putin to fight,” Zelensky said.
Germany expressed alarm over North Korea’s military support for Russia and summoned Pyongyang’s envoy to warn against further assistance. “North Korea’s support of the Russian war of aggression directly threatens Germany’s security and the European peace order,” the German foreign ministry stated.
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While the United States and NATO have not officially confirmed the deployment, Ukrainian media reported that two North Korean brigades, each comprising up to 6,000 personnel, are being trained in Russia for combat.
North Korea has reportedly supplied Russia with weapons for use in the Ukraine war. South Korean intelligence suggests that the elite “Storm Corps” of the North Korean military may be among those deployed, fueling rumors of increased internal security measures by Pyongyang.
North Korean authorities are reportedly relocating and isolating the families of deployed soldiers to maintain strict control over information.
According to South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-Kweun, North Korean soldiers are undergoing training in the use of drones and other modern warfare techniques. However, Russian military instructors have expressed concerns that while North Korean troops demonstrate high morale and physical stamina, they lack the tactical understanding necessary for drone-based operations.
