South Korea yesterday demanded the immediate pullout of North Korean troops allegedly deployed in Russia as it summoned the Russian ambassador to protest deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
South Korea’s spy agency on Friday last week said that it had confirmed that North Korea sent 1,500 special operation forces to Russia this month to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korean soldiers were being prepared to join invading Russian forces.
Photo: EPA-EFE
During a meeting with Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev, South Korean Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Kim Hong-kyun “condemned in the strongest terms” North Korea’s troop dispatch that he said poses “a grave security threat” to South Korea and the international community, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Kim said that South Korea in collaboration with the international community would mobilize all available means to deal with an act that threatens its vital national security interests, the statement said.
The Russian embassy quoted Zinoviev as saying that the cooperation between Russia and North Korean is not aimed against the security interests of South Korea.
In a telephone call with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte yesterday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said that Seoul would not sit idly by “reckless” military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
Yoon said South Korea would send a delegation to NATO to exchange information about Russian-North Korean cooperation, Yoon’s office said.
Rutte wrote on social media that North Korea possibly fighting alongside Russia would “mark a significant escalation.”
The US and NATO have not confirmed that North Korean troops were sent to Russia, but the reports of their presence have already stoked concerns in South Korea that Russia might provide North Korea with sophisticated technologies that can sharply enhance its nuclear and missile programs in return for its troop dispatch.
North Korea’s advancing nuclear arsenal is a major security threat to South Korea.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has taken steps to permanently terminate all relations with South Korea and has threatened to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively.
Some observers say South Korea would likely consider supplying weapons to Ukraine if Russian transfers of high-tech nuclear and missile technologies to North Korea are verified.
South Korea has joined US-led sanctions against Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but it has not directly provided arms to Kyiv, citing its longstanding policy of not supplying weapons to nations actively engaged in conflicts.
Russia earlier denied using North Korean troops in its war with Ukraine. North Korea’s state media has not commented on the matter.
Ukrainian officials released a video allegedly showing North Korean troops lining up to collect Russian military clothes and bags at an unknown location. The Associated Press could not verify the footage independently.
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