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Bloomberg: North Korea plans to send additional troops to Russia

Author:
Olha Bereziuk
Date:

Getty Images / «Babel'»

North Korea plans to send additional troops to Russia. The first group of 1,500 elite troops is already undergoing training in Russiaʼs Far East as part of a plan to deploy about 10,000 troops from North Korea.

Bloomberg writes about this with reference to the intelligence of South Korea.

The units arrived in Vladivostok between October 8 and 13, shortly after the first visit by Russian warships to North Korea since 1990, the agency said.

The intelligence documents also detail the scale of arms shipments from North Korea to support Russiaʼs military operations in its war against Ukraine.

Since last August, Pyongyang has sent approximately 8 million North Korean-made 122mm and 152mm projectiles, the analysis showed. Also, about 100 Hwasong-11 missiles, as well as Bulsae-4 anti-tank weapons, were discovered on the battlefield in Ukraine for the first time.

Participation of the North Korean military in the war against Ukraine

Ukrainian intelligence reported on October 24 that the first soldiers from the KDPR had already arrived at the front. Their presence was recorded on October 23 in the Kursk region of Russia. According to intelligence, approximately 12,000 military personnel were sent from North Korea to Russia, including 500 officers, including three generals.

The National Intelligence Service of South Korea reported that the first part of the military was transported by ships of the Russian Pacific Fleet to Vladivostok on October 8-13, they were given Russian uniforms, weapons and fake Russian passports to hide their participation in the war.

Soon after that, videos about the training of North Koreans at Russian training grounds began to appear on the Internet, and Babel sources said that they were being trained in such cities as Khabarovsk, Ussuriysk, Blagoveshchensk, and Vladivostok. A "special Buryat battalion" staffed by citizens of the DPRK is being formed on the basis of the 11th separate airborne assault brigade of the Russian Federation.

The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal, citing a former Russian spy, wrote that the strategic partnership agreement between Russia and North Korea, which Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un signed in June, contains a secret clause. According to the agreement, the DPRK will be able to send approximately one thousand of its soldiers to Ukraine at first, and later more.

The head of the GUR, Kyrylo Budanov, says that in exchange for soldiers, North Korea receives money and nuclear technology from Russia.

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