Oct. 21 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a “strong response” from international partners to North Korean involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine, citing evidence that Pyongyang has begun sending troops in addition to weapons.
“We have clear evidence that people are being supplied to Russia from North Korea, and these are not just workers for industries, but also military personnel,” Zelensky said in a video address on Sunday evening.
“We must counter this. We cannot let evil grow,” he said. “We expect a normal, honest, strong reaction from our partners to this. In fact, this is another state joining the war against Ukraine.”
Ukrainian officials shared a video on social media Saturday allegedly showing North Korean recruits lining up to receive fatigues and gear at a military camp in Russia’s Far East. The clip, provided by Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, has not been independently verified by UPI.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said Friday it has confirmed North Korea will send some 12,000 troops in support of Russia’s war effort.
The spy agency said it had evidence of North Korea already dispatching 1,500 special forces troops to Vladivostok through a Russian navy transport ship from October 8-13.
The move is seen as “confirming the start of the North Korean military’s participation in the war,” the NIS said in a statement.
The soldiers were reportedly given Russian uniforms and weapons as well as fake identification cards for a Siberian region where locals resemble North Koreans.
“It seems that they were disguised as Russian soldiers in order to hide the fact of their entry into the battlefield,” the statement said.
The NIS published satellite images and other photos showing Russian navy ship movements near a North Korean port and mass troop gatherings at military bases in Ussuriysk and Khabarovsk.
Russia has denied the presence of any North Korean troops in the war, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov calling the charges “another piece of fake news” at a press briefing last week.
Russia and North Korea have drawn closer since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the two isolated regimes signing a mutual defense pact in June.
The NIS also assessed Friday that North Korea has provided more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles, anti-tank rockets and other deadly weapons to Russia on more than 70 occasions since August last year.
On Monday, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russian Ambassador to South Korea Georgy Zinoviev to deliver the government’s “stern position” on the North Korean troops in Ukraine and to call for their immediate removal.
First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun told Zinoviev that the dispatch of North Korean troops “is a grave security threat not only to [South Korea] but also to the international community, and stressed that this is a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Kim “condemned in the strongest language the North Korean military’s illegal military cooperation, including the North’s troop deployment, and sternly warned that South Korea will respond to any act that threatens its core security interests,” the ministry said.