South Korea on Friday alleged North Korea of preparing to send additional troops to Russia following heavy casualties of its soldiers in the Ukraine war.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also suspects North Korea of continuing its preparations to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile intended to reach the United States.
Since the entry of North Korea in the Russia- Ukraine war last autumn, this month for the first time Ukraine captured two North Korean soldiers alive.
As per U.S., South Korean, and Ukraine intelligence, last October North Korea deployed about 10,000-12,000 troops to Russia and has been supplying a vast amount of artillery and other conventional weapons to Russia in exchange for sophisticated weapons technologies from Russia to expand its nuclear capabilities.
Earlier Russia and North Korea had denied any claims of Pyongyang’s troop deployment in the war however in October Vladimir Putin did not deny that North Korean soldiers’ presence in Russia and a North Korean official acclaimed the possibility of these deployments to be lawful.
Deepening military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang has raised concerns in South Korea for the probability of Pyongyang of using any opportunity obtained by it against the U.S. and South Korea. Further, In a major political conference last month, North Korean President Kim Jong Un vowed to implement the “toughest” anti-U.S. policy.
In the previous term of US President Donald Trump, he met with Kim three times and has shared his fondness for the North Korean leader. However, the previous talks collapsed due to Trump rejecting Kim’s offer to dismantle his main nuclear complex, a limited denuclearization step, in return for extensive sanctions relief.
The failure of these talks led to Pyongyang increasing the pace of weapons tests to expand an arsenal of nuclear missiles targeting the U.S. and South Korea.
