South Korea's spy agency says North Korea has shipped more weapons to Russia, further deepening Pyongyang's commitment to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Tensions are running high on the Korean Peninsula amid the North's missile tests and garbage-bearing balloons, spy satellite launches, and the South's moves to strengthen its defense ties with the U.S. and Japan.
Seoul says Pyongyang has already transferred thousands of containers' worth of munitions to replenish Russian forces' stocks. Further driving inter-Korean friction, the North has sent thousands of soldiers to join the conflict, now in its 33rd month, in what U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has called a "dangerous and destabilizing escalation."
The recent arms shipments are believed to have included howitzers and rocket launchers, lawmakers in South Korea's intelligence committee cited the National Intelligence Service (NIS) as saying Wednesday, according to the Yonhap news agency.
During the committee briefing, intelligence officials also said around 11,000 North Korean soldiers have finished their acclimation training in northeastern Russia and been deployed to the front line in Russia's Kursk region, where Moscow's forces have been struggling against a Ukrainian counteroffensive since August.
These North Korean troops are being trained on tactics and countering drones, with some having already entered into combat with Russia's Marine Corps and Airborne Brigade, the NIS added.
Newsweek reached out to the North Korean embassy in China and the Russian Foreign Ministry with emailed requests for comment outside of office hours.
The estimate of 11,000 North Korean boots on the ground in Kursk is in line with what Ukraine has said. The country's top envoy to Seoul, Dmytro Ponomarenko, recently said that number could rise to 15,000.
A similar number of North Korean troops could possibly be sent to the Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Donetsk, he said.
The spy agency also said North Korea's top diplomat, Choe Son Hui, had discussed "sensitive" topics with Putin during her visit to Russia earlier this month and that Kim could follow suit with his own trip.
South Korean and U.S. officials have voiced concerns that, in exchange for the injection of manpower, Russia could provide the Kim regime with technology and technical expertise for its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, which have led to United Nations sanctions.
South Korea's ambassador to the United Kingdom, Yoon Yeo-cheol, has said Seoul will watch the North's involvement in the conflict closely and "will never sit idle." He noted his country was sending $400 million in generators and other critical equipment to Kyiv, as well as a longer-term package valued at more than $2 billion.
The diplomat reiterated his government's position that Seoul will consider directly supplying weapons to Ukrainian forces for the first time if the North "seems they are going too far."
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