The Kremlin on Thursday (10 October 2024) rejected Seoul’s claim that North Korean soldiers were likely to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine.
“This looks like another fake news,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, without giving details.
Ukraine’s Kyiv Post reported on Friday (4 October 2024) that six North Korean soldiers were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Russian-occupied territory near Donetsk a day earlier, citing intelligence sources.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun told lawmakers on Tuesday that the report was likely correct.
“We assess that the occurrence of casualties among North Korean officers and soldiers in Ukraine is very likely given various circumstances,” he said.
“The issue of deploying regular troops is very likely due to the mutual agreements that resemble a military alliance between Russia and North Korea,” Kim added.
The head of Ukraine’s counter-disinformation center, Lt. Andriy Kovalenko, wrote on Telegram on Saturday that there were a “small number of combat engineers” from North Korea in the battle zone in the Donetsk region.
He said they were monitoring Pyongyang’s use of munitions, which he said Russia was increasingly dependent on, but were of “low quality”, as were North Korean missiles.
Experts have long claimed that North Korean missiles were deployed in Ukraine by Russian forces – something that both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied.
South Korea also claims that Pyongyang has sent thousands of containers of weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine.
The nuclear-armed North has publicly strengthened its military ties with Moscow in recent years.
President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Pyongyang in June, where he signed a mutual defense agreement with leader Kim Jong Un.
Published – October 10, 2024, 10:59 PM IST
