The news comes on the day that the Russian State Duma ratifies the cooperation agreement with North Korea regarding mutual military assistance between Moscow and Pyongyang.
The first troops sent North Korea to help Russia already war against Ukraine already in the theater of operations in Kursk, military intelligence services of Ukraine confirmed this Thursday.
These soldiers were reportedly receiving training at five military training camps in Ekaterinoslavka, Knyaze-Volkonskoe and Sergeevka, as well as in Ussuriysk and Ulan-Ude, in eastern Russia, according to the Ukrainian newspaper. The Independent Kyiv.
According to the same newspaper, North Korea sent around 12 thousand soldiers to Russia, including 500 officers and three generals. North Korean troops were seen for the first time on Russian soil last Wednesday, before being sent to the front line in Kursk, to counter Ukraine’s aggression on Moscow’s territory.
Ukrainian intelligence says that Russia has “high hopes” for the contribution of North Korean soldiers to the battlefield.
The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, confirmed this Thursday that agreement with North Korea which provides for mutual military assistance, at a time when the US also confirmed the deployment of 3,000 North Korean soldiers to Russia.
The agreement obliges Russia and North Korea to provide immediate military assistance, using “all means”, in the event of an attack. This is the strongest link between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.
President of Russia Vladimir Putin he noted the importance of this agreement but did not confirm the presence of North Korean military personnel on Russian territory, when asked at the BRICS summit in Kazan.
The EU is “very scary”
A European Union already a reaction, through a note sent to the media at the office of the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, Joseph Borrellin which he says that the EU is “deeply alarmed by reports that North Korea is helping Russia in its illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”
“The European Union strongly condemns the deepening of military cooperation and arms transfers between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and Russia, which clearly violates multiple resolutions of the United Nations Security Council. The EU urges the DPRK left to support Russia’s illegal war efforts,” the statement read.
US: North Korean soldiers become targets
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby warns that by entering the war, North Korean troops will legitimate targets of the Ukrainian army.
“If they are sent to fight against Ukraine, they are legitimate targets, and the Ukrainian military will defend itself against North Korean soldiers the same way it defends itself against Russian soldiers,” Kirby said, at warn that The possibility of dead and wounded North Korean soldiers is absolutely real“.
