SEOUL, March 27 (UPI) — North Korea has sent an additional 3,000 soldiers along with missiles and artillery to help Russia in its war against Ukraine, South Korea’s military said Thursday, as concerns grow around the strengthening military relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang.
“Of the 11,000 North Korean troops dispatched, approximately 4,000 were casualties, and it is understood that approximately 3,000 more were additionally dispatched as reinforcements between January and February,” the JCS said in a report shared with the media.
In addition to troop deployment, Pyongyang is continuing to ship missiles, artillery equipment and ammunition, the JCS said.
“As of now, it is estimated that a considerable number of short-range ballistic missiles, and around 220 pieces of 170mm self-propelled howitzers and 240mm multiple rocket launchers have been supplied,” the JCS said.
The account of additional troops being sent echoes a similar claim made earlier this month by a South Korean lawmaker, citing a briefing by Ukrainian defense intelligence.
South Korea’s top envoy to the United Nations called on the North Wednesday to stop sacrificing its soldiers, who have suffered high casualty rates on the battlefield, in exchange for Russian assistance.
“This war has inflicted serious suffering not only on the Ukrainian people and Russian soldiers and their families, but also on those of North Korea,” Ambassador Hwang Joon-kook said at a U.N. Security Council briefing.
Hwang noted that interviews with captured North Korean soldiers in Kursk revealed that they had been deceived by Pyongyang to believe they were being sent to Russia for training, not to fight a war.
“Reportedly, their families remain unaware that their sons have been sent abroad to engage in another country’s deadly conflict until the authorities issue a certificate of death in battle,” he added.
“Pyongyang must stop sacrificing its own people to sustain the regime in exchange for military, political and economic support from Moscow,” Hwang said.
The JCS analysis comes amid concerns that the growing military cooperation includes Moscow supplying advanced technical assistance for Pyongyang’s weapons programs.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised tests of new attack and reconnaissance drones this week, state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday.
Kim “made an important assessment of the military effectiveness and strategic value of the strategic reconnaissance drone with improving performance and of the suicide attack drones to which new artificial intelligence was applied,” KCNA reported.
He also learned about newly developed “reconnaissance and intelligence gathering means and electronic jamming and attack systems,” the report added.
Images published by KCNA included photos of what appears to be North Korea’s first airborne early warning and control aircraft, which uses radar to detect planes, vessels and missiles at long ranges. Analysts using commercial satellite imagery had previously assessed that North Korea was modifying a Russian Il-76 cargo aircraft to add a radome — an enclosure for radar antennas and electronic equipment.
Thursday’s JCS report said that Russia also appears to be helping North Korea to make technical improvements in preparation to launch another military spy satellite, although there were no imminent signs of such a launch.
