On October 21, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador in Seoul over the sending of North Korean troops to Russia for deployment in Ukraine.
Yonhap writes about it.
The first deputy foreign minister of South Korea Kim Hong-Kyung summoned the Russian ambassador Georgy Zinoviev and called for the immediate withdrawal of North Korean soldiers from Russia.
The official noted that military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, which goes beyond the provisions on military supplies, poses a serious threat to South Korea and the international community, while also violating numerous UN Security Council resolutions.
Kim stressed that South Korea will respond with all possible means together with the international community to any actions that threaten South Koreaʼs core interests.
In response to this, Zinoviev stated that the cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang complies with international law and is not directed against the security interests of South Korea, according to the message of the Russian embassy on Facebook.
Participation of the North Korean military in the war against Ukraine
On October 4, Kyiv Post, citing Ukrainian intelligence, reported that six North Korean officers were killed in an attack by the Armed Forces near occupied Donetsk a day before. An anonymous Ukrainian official told The Guardian that North Korean military engineers are helping Russian troops strike Ukraine with North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles.
Already on October 8, South Koreaʼs Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said that the agreements between Russia and North Korea resemble a military alliance, so there is a high probability that the military from the DPRK is fighting on the side of the Russian Federation in Ukraine — and their number may increase. In a few days, President Zelensky confirmed that North Korea supplies Russia not only with weapons, but also with personnel for the military forces.
On October 15, "Babel" intelligence sources said that a "special Buryat battalion" staffed by citizens of the DPRK is being formed at the base of the 11th separate airborne assault brigade of the Russian Federation.
On October 18, the head of GUR Kyrylo Budanov said that about 11 000 North Korean soldiers are being trained in the Russian Federation for war against Ukraine. Soon after that, videos of the training of North Koreans at Russian training grounds began to appear on the Internet, and Babel sources said that they are being trained in such cities as Khabarovsk, Usuriysk, Blagoveshchensk, and Vladivostok.
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