North Korea appears to be getting more deeply involved in the Ukraine war, going beyond supplying Russia with munitions. Its military engineers “have been deployed to help Russia target Ukraine with ballistic missiles” it provided to Russia, The Guardian reported, citing senior officials in Kyiv and Seoul.
Dozens of North Koreans are behind Russian lines, “in teams that support launcher systems for KN-23 [short-range ballistic] missiles,” a source in Ukraine told the publication. As we reported earlier this year, North Korea began supplying Russia with those missiles, also known as Hwasong-11s, but about half were defective, according to an analysis from Ukrainian state prosecutors.
South Korea’s Defense Minister, Kim Yong-hyun, told members of parliament in Seoul this week that it was “highly likely” that North Korean officers had been deployed to fight alongside Russians, and as we previously reported, several had died last week in an attack on a Russian base in the Donetsk region. He did not give further details.
The head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, concurred. In a post on Telegram, he said that some North Koreans had been killed in Ukraine. His organization is part of the National Security and Defense Council.
All this comes in the wake of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s visit to Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin where the two men bolstered their deepening ties with a secret arms deal. It was reported that, among other things, it called for Pyongyang to send construction and engineering forces to Russia-occupied territories of Ukraine for rebuilding work. There was no indication of how many personnel would be involved or the exact nature of their work.
The increasing evidence of North Korean troops in Ukraine marks a big escalation. Foreigners have fought as mercenaries for Russia, “but if North Koreans are on the ground it would mark the first time a foreign government has sent troops in uniform to support Moscow’s war,” the Guardian noted
“North Korea is likely to deploy members of its regular armed forces to Ukraine in support of Russia, South Korea’s defense chief said Tuesday, in the latest sign of deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow…
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