North Korean troops being sent to Russia to assist its war in Ukraine are a "grave security threat" to the international community, South Korea's presidential office said on Oct. 18.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol convened an emergency meeting with key officials a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Pyongyang is preparing 10,000 soldiers of different branches and specializations to join Moscow's full-scale invasion.
"The participants ... shared the view that the current situation where Russia and North Korea's closer ties have gone beyond the movement of military supplies to actual dispatch of troops is a grave security threat not only to our country but to the international community," South Korea's presidential office said in a statement after the meeting.
"They also decided not to stand by and will respond by mobilizing all available means in cooperation with the international community," it added.
Up until now, Seoul has only provided humanitarian aid to Kyiv, though it has been reported the country has indirectly supplied artillery shells via the U.S.
In June, South Korea said it would reconsider its policy of not directly supplying Ukraine with weapons after Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea dictator Kim Jong-Un signed a security agreement in Pyongyang.
After the meeting on Oct. 18, South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it believes North Korea will deploy four brigades totalling 12,000 soldiers to the war in Ukraine, including 1,500 special forces.
It would mark the first time North Korean forces had been deployed to a foreign war.
It also revealed it had been working with Ukraine's intelligence services and had used facial recognition technology to identify North Korean officers operating in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, where it said they were helping Russian forces to launch North Korean missiles.
"The direct military cooperation between Russia and North Korea that has been reported by foreign media has now been officially confirmed," NIS said in a statement.
Chris York
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels on Oct. 17, Zelensky said that Russia is planning to train and engage not only infantry but also North Korean specialists in various branches of the military.
"We know about 10,000 soldiers from North Korea they are preparing to send to fight against us," he added.
His statement came days after a Western diplomat told the Kyiv Independent that Pyongyang had sent 10,000 soldiers to Russia.
Zelensky said that Moscow plans to "actually involve" North Korea in the war in the coming months.
According to military intelligence, some North Korean officers are already in the occupied territories of Ukraine and joined the Russian army. Their number is unknown, Zelensky added.
Zelensky said the participation of the North Korean military in Russia's war "is the first step to a World War."
Elsewhere, the White House said on Oct. 17 it "can’t confirm or corroborate" whether North Korean troops had been dispatched to Russian in preparation of fighting in Ukraine.
"If true, that would demonstrate an increase in the cooperation between Russia and North Korea," U.S. Department of Defense Press Secretary Gen. Patrick Ryder said at a press briefing.
Moscow and Pyongyang have deepened military cooperation as Russia seeks arms and other support in its full-scale war against Ukraine.
North Korea has been supplying Russia with ballistic missiles and vast quantities of artillery shells.
Chris York
