Ukraine has already recorded troops from North Korea on its occupied territories.
President Volodymyr Zelensky informed about this on Monday, October 21, at a meeting with journalists, the correspondent of Babel reports.
"Weʼve been capturing officers, technical personnel [from North Korea]. I think, it was in temporarily occupied territories," he said.
And he suggested that Pyongyang had sent officers to study the situation and then was going to send soldiers. However, they may have difficulties with Russians due to the language barrier.
When asked why North Korea could make such a decision, Zelensky said that, most likely, "because of money."
"I think North Korea is very poor. They will send their people to the front," he added.
At the same time, Zelensky noted that the European Union and the United States are still "very restrained" in their response to information about North Koreaʼs involvement in the war.
"But we hit the nail on the head, because we know that these are risks for us," the president explained.
Answering a question about South Koreaʼs reaction, he said that Ukraine has a dialogue with Seoul.
"We are definitely working, they are helping, but due to a certain constitutional status, they are limited in some things," Volodymyr Zelensky emphasized.
Participation of the North Korean military in the war against Ukraine
On October 4, Kyiv Post, citing the Ukrainian intelligence, reported that six North Korean officers were killed in an attack by the Armed Forces near occupied Donetsk the 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 Korean Defense Minister Kim Yonghyung 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 Russian army.
On October 15, the Babelʼs sources in the Intelligence (known as GUR) 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 North Koreans training at Russian training grounds began to appear on the Internet, and Babelʼs sources said that they were being trained in such cities as Khabarovsk, Usuriysk, Blagoveshchensk, and Vladivostok. Subsequently, the intelligence of South Korea told in detail how North Korea supplies Russia with military personnel and equipment.
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