Seoul Gazette - Seoul says North Korea has deployed more troops to Russia

South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said that more than 10,000 soldiers from the reclusive state were sent to Russia last year to help it fight a shock Ukrainian offensive into the Kursk border region.

Seoul said this month North Korean soldiers previously fighting alongside Russia's army on the Kursk frontline had not been engaged in combat since mid-January.

Ukraine also said they had been withdrawn following heavy losses.

However, an official from Seoul's National Intelligence Agency said on Thursday they had been "redeployed" there.

That came alongside "some additional troop deployments appearing to have taken place", the official added.

"The exact scale is still being assessed," the official said.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have confirmed the deployment.

The two countries signed an agreement, including a mutual defence clause, when Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to the nuclear-armed North last year.

- 'Brutal' fighting -

"This is, I think, a wake-up call for everyone globally to understand that the security of Europe and the Indo-Pacific has never been more directly linked than it is today," Ukraine's foreign ministry spokesman said in response to the reports.

"We don't think that the reaction of the international community has been sufficient," spokesman Georgiy Tykhy told reporters, including AFP.

Ukraine has previously said it had captured or killed several North Korean soldiers in Kursk.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has also released footage of interrogations with what he said were North Korean prisoners captured by the Ukrainian army there.

Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper also published an interview this month with a North Korean soldier who described "brutal" fighting on the frontline.

The soldier, who was visibly wounded, told the paper that many of his fellow North Korean soldiers had been killed by drones and artillery fire.

"Everyone who joined the army with me is dead," he said.

Pyongyang and Moscow have deepened political, military and cultural ties since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un hailed Putin in a New Year's letter and made a possible reference to the war in Ukraine.

He said 2025 would be the year "when the Russian army and people defeat neo-Nazism and achieve a great victory".

North Korean state media reported on Wednesday that Kim had visited a major military academy, urging troops to harness the "actual experiences of modern warfare".

K.Han--SG