North Korean special forces in Russia readying for combat in Ukraine war, South Korea says

North Korea has shipped 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s far east for training and will likely be deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine, South Korea’s spy agency said.

North Korea has dispatched 1,500 special forces troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, South Korea’s spy agency said in a statement Friday, a move that will likely put further strain on already tense relations between the reclusive nuclear-armed state and the West.   

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a statement that it caught its northern neighbor “transporting North Korean special forces to Russia through a Russian naval transport ship.”  

These “soldiers were given Russian military uniforms and Russian-made weapons,” the statement said, adding that they were also given forged identification documents to make it look like they had come from the regions in Siberia where people resemble North Koreans.      

The soldiers had been dispersed across Vladivostok, a major port city in eastern Russia, which is near the borders of China and North Korea, the statement said. “These soldiers are expected to be deployed to the front line upon completing their adaptation training,” it added. 

“Suspicions of ‘direct military cooperation between Russia and North Korea’ raised by foreign media have been officially confirmed,” an NIS official was quoted as saying in the statement.  “We will continue to track and confirm the movement of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea through close intelligence cooperation with allies.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/north-korean-troops-russia-readying-combat-ukraine-war-rcna176070

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