North Korea sends 1,500 troops to aid Russia’s war in Ukraine, South Korea’s spy agency says

CNN —

North Korea has shipped 1,500 soldiers to Russia for training, South Korea’s spy agency said on Friday, describing the move as the first step in the secretive state’s military involvement in Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

The hermit nation transported its special forces fighters on seven Russian ships earlier in October, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a press release on Friday.

Those units had previously been personally inspected by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the agency added.

Large Russian transport aircraft have also been frequently traveling between Vladivostok and Pyongyang, it said.

The revelations follow repeated warnings from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea has resulted in North Korean troops joining the war.

“From intelligence that I have … they are preparing 10,000 soldiers, different soldiers, land forces, technical personnel,” Zelensky told reporters at a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday.

“We know about 10,000 soldiers of North Korea … are preparing to (start) fighting against us. This is really an urgent thing, I spoke about it with the United States, I spoke about it with all the leaders.”

Russia's President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un in June, the first visit of its kind in more than two decades.

Related article North Korea sending citizens to help Russian military fight Ukraine, Zelensky says

Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said Friday that North Korea “is aiding Russian aggression against Ukraine with weapons and personnel. Not mercenaries.”

Sybiha accused Moscow of seriously escalating its “aggression” by “involving DPRK on a war party scale,” referring