South Korea: North Korean troops in Russia readying for Ukraine combat

North Korea has shipped 1,500 special forces troops to Russia's far east for training at local military bases before being deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine, South Korea's spy agency said on Friday.

Anonymous sources told South Korean media the final figure could be closer to 12,000.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) also said it had been working with Ukrainian intelligence service and had used facial recognition artificial intelligence technology to identify North Korean officers in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region supporting Russian forces firing North Korean missiles.

The NIS shared a satellite image by Airbus Defence and Space of Russia's Khabarovsk military facility, where the it said North Korean personnel gathered within the training ground on October 16:

In more than 13,000 containers, North Korea has shipped artillery rounds, ballistic missiles and anti-tank rockets to Russia since August last year, the agency said, based on the remnants of weapons recovered from the battle front in Ukraine.

In all, more than eight million artillery and rocket rounds have been shipped to Russia, it said. 

"The direct military cooperation between Russia and North Korea that has been reported by foreign media has now been officially confirmed," the spy agency said in a statement.

Earlier, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called an unscheduled security meeting with key intelligence, military and national security officials to discuss North Korean troops' involvement in Russia's war against Ukraine, Yoon's office said.

"The participants ... shared the view that the current situation where Russia and North Korea's closer ties have gone beyond the movement of military supplies to actual dispatch of troops is a grave security threat not only to our country but to the international community," it said.

Yoon's office said South Korea, together with its allies, has been closely tracking North Korea's troop dispatch to Russia from the initial stages.

South Korea will respond to the North's activities with all available means, it added, without elaborating on what actions it might take.

South Korea, which has emerged as a major global arms exporter, selling fighter jets, mechanized howitzers and missiles, has come under pressure from some Western allies including Washington to help arm Ukraine with lethal weapons but has stopped short of openly doing so.

Vessels belonging to Russia's Pacific Fleet were detected moving about 1,500 North Korean special forces troops to Vladivostok from October 8 to 13 and are expected to resume the shipment of troops soon, the NIS said.

The troops have been supplied with Russian military uniforms and weapons as well as fake identification documents for when they are deployed for combat, the NIS added.

The agency said it used facial recognition AI to identify with a high degree of accuracy technical military officers from the North Korean military in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine where they are supporting Russia's missile offensive and helping to help with technical glitches.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused North Korea on Thursday of deploying officers alongside Russia and preparing to send 10,000 soldiers to help Moscow's war effort, although NATO's chief Mark Rutte said there was no evidence of Pyongyang's presence at this stage.

Since their leaders' summit in the Russian far east last year, North Korea and Russia have dramatically upgraded their military ties and they met again in June to sign a comprehensive strategic partnership that includes a mutual defence pact.

Russia and North Korea both deny they have engaged in arms transfers. The Kremlin has also dismissed South Korean assertions that North Korea may have sent some military personnel to help Russia against Ukraine.

North Korea has 1.28 million active duty troops, according to South Korea's latest data, and has stepped up its development of a series of ballistic missiles and a nuclear arsenal, fuelling regional tension and drawing international sanctions.

Deploying troops to Russia, if confirmed, would be its first major involvement in a war since the 1950-53 Korean War.

North Korea reportedly sent a much smaller contingent to the Vietnam War and to the civil conflict in Syria.