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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said determination is grounds that North Korea has sent troops to Russia connected Monday, and South Korea's spy main told lawmakers that 3,000 North Korean troops are successful the state receiving grooming connected drones and different instrumentality earlier being deployed to battlefields successful Ukraine.
Austin told reporters Wednesday “What precisely they are doing? Left to beryllium seen. These are things that we request to benignant out,” according to a video posted by the Washington Post.
If the troops articulation the warfare successful Ukraine connected Russia’s side, it volition beryllium “a very, precise superior issue,” Austin said, adding it would person an interaction successful Europe and successful the Indo-Pacific region.
South Korean quality archetypal publicized reports that the Russian navy had taken 1,500 North Korean peculiar warfare troops to Russia past week, portion Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had earlier said his authorities had quality that 10,000 North Korea soldiers were being prepared to articulation the invading Russian forces.
The U.S. and NATO had not antecedently formally confirmed North Korea’s reported unit dispatch, but person warned of the information of specified a improvement if true. Russia and North Korea person truthful acold denied the unit movements.
South Korean National Intelligence Service Director Cho Tae-yong told lawmakers that said different 1,500 North Korean troops person entered Russia successful a closed-door meeting, according to lawmaker Park Sunwon, who attended the briefing.
Cho told lawmakers that his bureau assessed that North Korea aims to deploy a full of 10,000 troops to Russia by December, Park told reporters.
Park cited Cho arsenic saying the 3,000 North Korean soldiers sent to Russia person been divided among aggregate subject bases and are successful training. Cho told lawmakers that NIS believes they person yet to beryllium deployed successful battle, according to Park.
Speaking jointly with Park astir the NIS briefing, lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun said that the NIS recovered that the Russian subject is present teaching those North Korean soldiers however to usage subject instrumentality specified arsenic drones.
Lee cited the NIS main arsenic saying Russian instructors person precocious opinions of the morale and carnal spot of the North Korean soldiers but deliberation they volition yet endure a dense causalities due to the fact that they deficiency an knowing of modern warfare. Lee, citing Cho, said Russia is recruiting a ample fig of interpreters.
Lee said NIS has detected signs that North Korea is relocating household members of soldiers chosen to beryllium sent to Russia to peculiar sites to isolate them.
The NIS main told lawmakers that North Korea hasn't disclosed its unit dispatch to its ain people. But determination are rumors that the quality is spreading to section residents, including those whose loved ones person been assigned Russian tours, Lee said, citing the NIS.
Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate head, Kyrylo Budanov, told the online subject quality outlet The War Zone that North Korean troops volition get to Russia's Kursk portion contiguous to assistance Russian troops warring disconnected a Ukrainian incursion.
North Korea and Russia, embroiled successful abstracted confrontations with the West, person been sharply boosting their practice successful the past 2 years. In June, they signed a large defence woody requiring some countries to usage each disposable means to supply contiguous subject assistance if either is attacked.
The NIS said past week that North Korea had sent much than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and different accepted arms to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.
Reports that the North is sending troops to Russia stoked information jitters successful South Korea. South Korean officials interest that Russia whitethorn reward North Korea by giving it blase weapons technologies that could boost the North’s atomic and rocket programs that people South Korea.
South Korea said Tuesday it would see supplying weapons to Ukraine successful effect to the North's reported unit dispatch. South Korea has shipped humanitarian and fiscal enactment to Ukraine, but it has truthful acold avoided straight supplying arms to Ukraine successful enactment with its argumentation of not supplying weapons to countries actively engaged successful conflicts.
North Korea has 1.2 cardinal troops, 1 of the largest lasting armies successful the world, but it hasn’t fought successful large-scale conflicts since the 1950-53 Korean War. Many experts question however overmuch North Korean troops would assistance Russia, citing a shortage of conflict experience. They accidental North Korea wants to get Russian economical enactment and its assistance to modernize the North's outdated accepted weapons systems arsenic good arsenic its high-tech weapons exertion transfers.
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Associated Press writer Illia Novikov successful Kyiv, Ukraine contributed to this report.
