NORTH Korea is reportedly planning to send 30,000 more troops to fight alongside the Russians against Ukraine.
It comes just a day after tyrant Kim Jong-un wept over the coffins of his soldiers whom he sent to die in Vladimir Putin’s meatgrinder war.
APRussian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exchange documents during a signing ceremony of a new partnership in Pyongyang[/caption]
RexA young-looking North Korean fighter stares down the lens of a Ukrainian drone[/caption]
TelegramLeaked footage showed Kim Jong-un’s soliders training in Kursk[/caption]
AFPNorth Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un posing with troops during an inspection at a training base[/caption]
North Korea has so far sent an estimated total of 14,000 troops, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses, according to Ukrainian officials.
And a new Ukrainian intelligence assessment says Pyongyang is preparing to dispatch 30,000 more soldiers in the coming months to join the fight with the Russians, CNN reports.
According to the intel report, there is a high chance that troops from North Korea will soon enter Russian-occupied Ukraine “to strengthen the Russian contingent, including during the large-scale offensive operations.”
The document adds Russian Ministry of Defence is “capable of providing needed equipment, weapons and ammunition” with the aim of “further integration to Russian combat units.”
Ukrainian intelligence also reported that Russian military aircraft are being modified to carry thousands of military personnel.
Last week, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) told a closed-door parliamentary committee meeting that a dispatch of those 6,000 additional military personnel will likely come as early as July or August,
North Korea has begun recruiting soldiers to be sent to Russia, according to Lee Seong Kweun, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting.
He told reporters the NIS noted that North Korea’s dispatch of combat troops last year came about one month after Shoigu visited North Korea and signed an agreement with Pyongyang officials.
In return for North Korea’s supply of troops and weapons, Russia is believed to have given North Korea military and economic assistance.
South Korea, the US and their allies are concerned that Russia could even transfer sensitive technologies that can enhance North Korea’s nuclear program.
In April, Kim Jong-un confirmed for the first time that North Korean troops were sent to fight alongside the Russians against Ukraine.
Pyongyang’s state TV and Kim’s propaganda machine KCNA reported that North Korean soldiers made an “important contribution” to help the Russians flush out Kyiv’s troops from Kursk.
It said Kim deployed “sub-units of our armed forces” to Russia as part of a treaty with Moscow.
The troops “participated in the operations for liberating the Kursk areas,” the report added.
North Korea “regards it as an honor to have an alliance with such a powerful state as the Russian Federation,” KCNA said.
Just two days ago, Kim draped flags over at least six coffins, and could be seen resting his hands on them in reflection.
Watching the scenes back, the dictator’s eyes shone with emotion.
Other members of the audience – which reportedly included North Korean and Russian soldiers – were also visibly moved.
Kim hosted a ceremony which remembered the soldiers taken out by Zelensky’s brave army – and things got emotional for the tyrant.
Thousands of North Koreans stood to attention in the vast auditorium, with Kim in the front row.
Images of Kim draping the North Korean flag over soldiers’ coffins were broadcast on a giant screen at the front while a huge orchestra played emotional music.
Women in long dresses sang passionately and there was even a harp player stationed on the stage.
ReutersKim Jong-un teared up as he watched himself laying the North Korean flag over soldiers’ coffins[/caption]
XThe coffins are thought to contain the bodies of North Koreans killed while fighting for Russia in Ukraine[/caption]
ReutersRussia’s President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un attend a state reception in Pyongyang[/caption]
XNorth Korea’s Storm Corps pictured in Moscow[/caption]
In January, Ukraine claimed to have captured two North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region.
They were among the first 11,000 of Kim’s troops drafted into Putin’s illegal war after the pariah pair sealed a pact to unite against the West.
The military card of one of the captured men shows that the Russians gave the North Koreans fake identities with the pretence that they were from a remote region of Siberia.
One of the captives was given a false Russian identity of Antonin Ayasovich Arankyn, born 03.10.1998 in the republic of Tuva.
His document shows him to be single, with secondary higher education and the profession of a tailor.
The ID was issued by the Military Commissariat of the Pyi-Khemsky district, of Tuva, a mountainous Russian republic bordering Mongolia.
The other had no documents.
The SBU believes the pair are North Koreans after saying that the captive soldiers do not speak Ukrainian, English or Russian.
The soldier with the Russian identity said this was issued to him when he was brought to fight in the war.
Images have shown a line of dead North Korean troops laid out in the snow moments after they joined the fight on the front lines.
Numerous reports have shown a disturbing pattern beginning to emerge of North Korean troops being sent out on suicide missions on behalf of Russia.
Footage emerged recently of Kim Jong-un’s fighters being sent to jog through snowy no-man’s-land and fatally soak up Ukrainian ammo.
East2WestOne of the men was found with documents giving him a fake identity[/caption]
East2WestThe Russian-issued false document claimed that the man was from a remote region of Siberia[/caption]
A captured North Korean soldier said he thought he was sent for training
GettyThe prisoners of war are being given medical treatment while undergoing questioning from the Secret Service[/caption]