North Korea has decided to send a total of 12,000 soldiers to the Ukrainian front to support Russia in the war and the deployment of these troops has already begun, according to a source from the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS).
“It has been discovered that North Korea has recently decided to send a total of 12,000 troops from four different brigades, including special forces, to the war in Ukraine,” explained the aforementioned source cited today by the Yonhap news agency.
The information is released after in recent days Ukrainian sources assured that Pyongyang was going to supply troops to fight in Ukraine and the president of this country, Volodimir Zelensky, said yesterday that North Korea is preparing to send a contingent of about 10,000 men and that this would represent “the first step towards a world war.”
“The movement of troops has already begun,” indicated the NIS source, in what would be the first sending of North Korean soldiers outside the national territory since the Korean War (1950-1953).
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has called an emergency interdepartmental meeting today to discuss North Korean support for Russia on the front, the Presidential Office in Seoul reported shortly after the information held by the NIS was released.
It is the first time that Seoul confirms the information that had transpired from kyiv since last week and that Moscow has labeled a “hoax”, while the North Korean media has chosen to remain silent on the matter.
The NIS data is very close to what was said in an interview by the head of Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), Kirilo Budánov, who claims to have evidence that nearly 11,000 North Korean soldiers are receiving training in the east of the Russian Federation to join the Kremlin troops fighting against Ukraine starting November 1.
The North Korean decision, experts believe, would be in line with the strategic cooperation treaty signed by North Korea and Russia in June, which further deepens the strong rapprochement that Pyongyang and Moscow have embarked on in the last year.
This pact includes a mutual assistance clause in the event that one of the two countries is attacked, a condition that would technically be met by the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk and Belgorod.
In turn, it is thought that Moscow, which has been receiving rounds of North Korean artillery and missiles since the summer of 2023, may be experiencing a significant lack of troops in its army after the numerous casualties suffered on the front in recent months.
NATO reaffirmed its support for Ukraine
NATO reiterated this Thursday that it is united in its long-term support for Ukraine, although it avoided endorsing the victory plan of the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelensky, who presented it in person in Brussels to the EU leaders and defense ministers. of NATO.
The allies have received with some coldness the plan presented by kyiv, which includes, among other points, accelerating Ukraine’s entry into NATO, allowing the use of long-range weapons to attack Russia and deploying non-nuclear deterrent weapons on Ukrainian territory.
“We will not lose unity. Ukraine can count on it. The message to Putin is that if he thinks we will do it, it will not be like that,” reiterated NATO leader Mark Rutte, emphasizing new announcements from the United States or Germany to reinforce Ukraine’s anti-aircraft systems.
Rutte has stressed that allies will ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to combat the Russian invasion. “If someone in the Kremlin thinks that we are going to stop trying to divide, this will not happen, and Ukraine will be a member of NATO,” he indicated.
The former Dutch Prime Minister stressed that within the organization there are debates on issues of support for Ukraine, in reference to allowing Russian targets to be attacked on its territory, “as happens in democracies”, but there is “unity” regarding supporting Ukraine and allies are aligned on this goal “from Los Angeles to Tirana.”
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