North Korea is planning to send troops to Russian-occupied territories in Ukraine, South Korean TV has claimed.
TV Chosun cited a South Korean government official, who said that North Korea plans to send construction and engineering forces to the territories as early as next month for rebuilding work. Pyongyang did not comment on the allegation.
On Tuesday, Pentagon press secretary General Pat Ryder expressed his concern about the possibility of Pyongyang sending troops to Ukrainian war zones.
“If I were North Korean military personnel management, I would be questioning my choice of sending my forces to be cannon fodder in an illegal war against Ukraine. And we’ve seen the kinds of casualties that Russian forces [have been takingn],” Ryder said.
He added that the U.S. was monitoring what appears to be an ever-deepening of military ties between the two countries.
On June 19th, Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un signed the ‘Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the DPRK and the Russian Federation’ (CSP), the most significant and far-reaching agreement between the two states in the post-Cold War era.
The treaty commits Russia and North Korea to increase cooperation across the security, political and economic domains.However, it makes no mention of the war in Ukraine, nor does it hint at sending North Korean troops into the fray.
Pyongyang has so far limited itself to supplying Russia with weapons, which it started doing in 2023.
In February, Ukrainian authorities reported shooting down at least 20 North Korean ballistic missiles used by Russia in strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure in the span of a few weeks.
Since last fall, North Korea has supplied over 11,000 containers of munitions to Russia, the Washington Post reported earlier in June this year.
Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian member of parliament told the Daily Express that North Korea has become an important bridge between the Kremlin and China.
This way, Beijing can indirectly transfer military equipment to Moscow through Pyongyang without breaching Western sanctions.
“Essentially all the military equipment that is delivered from North Korea was developed for the North Koreans by the Chinese,” he said.
China, he continued, “is cautious not to fall foul of secondary sanctions by the U.S., but [the already heavily sanctioned] North Korea is not in danger.”
“So, there is no problem for the Chinese to assist North Koreans and then North Koreans to make trade with Russia and benefit from this both financially and in terms of military development.”
