“Taking into account the various circumstances, we assess with a high degree of credibility the emergence of information about North Korean officers and soldiers who lost their lives in Russia and Ukraine”>Ukraine. North Korea is expected to send even more infantry to support Russia in hostilities. The sending of soldiers should be regarded with a high degree of credibility as something resembling a military alliance due to the conclusion of mutual agreements between Russia and North Korea,” the minister said yesterday while addressing members of parliament in Seoul.
Military experts have been claiming for some time that Russian armed forces are using North Korean-supplied missiles in Ukraine, which both it and Russia continue to deny. It is possible that the dead officers had been sent to train the Russians in handling the supplied weapons. South Korea has also announced that North Korea has sent thousands of containers of weapons to Russia.
The ruler of the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin, visited North Korea in June, where he and its leader Kim Jong-un signed an agreement on mutual protection.