SAEDNEWS: Kyiv’s military intelligence agency has denied a report that North Korea plans to send up to 30,000 additional troops to Russia in the coming months to aid in Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The denial of a CNN report earlier this month citing Ukrainian intelligence and Western security sources came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that Pyongyang is ready to "unconditionally support" Moscow's every effort to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Sunday.
Lavrov, who wrapped up a three-day visit to North Korea the same day, expressed Moscow’s intention to “further intensify the strategic and tactical cooperation” between the two sides “in the international arena,” according to KCNA.
Pyongyang has provided troops and weapons for Russia's war in Ukraine, and has pledged continued military support as Moscow looks to solidify gains made in recent months — a move that highlights the speed at which bilateral ties have deepened since the nations signed a mutual defense treaty just over a year ago.
But the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence told The Japan Times in an emailed statement over the weekend that it “has no information regarding plans to increase the contingent of the Korean People's Army on the territory of the Russian Federation to 30,000 military personnel in the coming months.”
“The transfer of these units is planned to be carried out in batches of 1,500 to 3,000 personnel in two or three stages during July and August of this year,” the agency said, revealing details of the deployment for the first time. Also planned is the deployment to Russia of 50 to 100 units of North Korean equipment, including M2010, or Cheonma-D, main battle tanks and BTR-80 armored personnel carriers.
