• By Aditya Jha
  • Thu, 24 Oct 2024 01:51 PM (IST)
  • Source:JND

The United States has accused North Korea of dispatching thousands of its troops to Russia to aid Moscow in the war in Ukraine. Earlier, Ukraine and South Korea made similar claims when Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused North Korea of deploying officers in Russian-occupied territory. The US claimed that the majority of those troops are still in Russia, and their role in the conflict remains to be seen. However, both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the claims, citing these reports as baseless. 

South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) claimed that 3,000 troops, including special forces, were sent to Russia's Far East for training and acclimatising at military bases there. NIS claimed that the troops were sent probably for combat in the war. South Korea also claimed that the delegation also included a key figure in North Korea's missile development.

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 Last year, Ri Song Jin could be seen accompanying leader Kim Jong Un to factories that turn out missiles. Seoul has claimed that Ri Song Jin was also sent to Russia along with the troops. It was also claimed that the troops had been supplied with Russian military uniforms, weapons, and false identification documents ahead of being deployed for combat. 

Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a visit to Pyongyang in June in which he stated that both of the nations agreed to help each other in cases of external aggression. According to foreign intelligence agencies and commercial satellite imagery examined by analysts, North Korea appears to be gaining major imports of oil and other products from Russia. The reports also suggest that Pyongyang could benefit from providing weapons and troops by gaining experience and insight from operating on a battlefield.

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Earlier, South Korea claimed that Russia has fired dozens of North Korea-made ballistic missiles and has received large numbers of artillery shells and anti-tank rockets from Pyongyang. However, a Kremlin spokesman dismissed reports of North Korean troops in Ukraine as "fake news," and a North Korean representative to the United Nations in New York called them "groundless rumours."