North Korea may be preparing to send additional troops to Russia after its soldiers fighting in the ongoing invasion of Ukraine suffered heavy casualties, South Korea’s military said on Friday.
The JCS did not provide further details regarding what follow-up measures Pyongyang might be considering at this time.
North Korea is also preparing to launch a spy satellite and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), though there were no signs of immediate action, the JCS said.
Pyongyang deployed around 11,000 soldiers to support Moscow’s forces in Russia’s western Kursk region last Autumn, according to Ukrainian and Western assessments.
The deployment came amid increased cooperation between the two nations following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Pyongyang in June 2024.
Kyiv says more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded so far while fighting for Russia, while Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said last week that it assessed that around 300 North Korean soldiers had died and another 2,700 had been injured.
North Korean and Russian officials have not commented on the alleged casualties or deaths.
North Korea’s alleged preparations to bolster troops and aid Russia follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments on Thursday that he plans to reach out to Kim.
Trump Touts Ties With Kim Jong Un
Trump made history in 2019 when he became the first sitting U.S. president to step foot in North Korea.During his first term in the White House, he met with Kim three times overall.
Trump did not provide further details regarding his plans to reach out to Kim but said he believes the North Korean dictator will be “happy to see” he’s “coming back.”
He said he and Kim “got along” and that the North Korean leader “is a nuclear power.”
Trump also said President Barack Obama had referred to North Korea as the “biggest threat” when they met at the White House during the presidential transition in 2016 and that he “solved that problem” after he entered office in 2017.
On Monday, Trump described North Korea as “a nuclear power,” drawing the ire of the South Korean government, which has long avoided describing its neighbor as a nuclear state due to concerns that doing so could be seen as recognizing and accepting its pursuit of nuclear weapons in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
In a statement after Trump’s comments, a spokesperson for the South Korean Foreign Ministry told media outlets that North Korea’s denuclearization remains a “consistent principle upheld by the international community, including South Korea and the U.S.”
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry also said it will closely coordinate with the Trump administration to achieve denuclearization in North Korea.
North Korea hasn’t responded to Trump’s comments.
