Photo : Ukrainian Strategic Communication and Information Security Center (SPRAVDI)
Anchor: Ukraine said Friday that the troops Pyongyang sent to Russia could begin fighting alongside Russia this weekend. With the joint military action apparently imminent, North Korea is no longer denying its troop deployment to Russia.
Kim Bum-soo wraps up the latest.
Report: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says North Korean troops deployed to Russia are set to join actual combat as early as this weekend.
In a Telegram post Friday, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian intelligence determined that Russia will begin to use North Korean soldiers in combat zones between Sunday and Monday.
While Zelenskyy did not specify where the troops will be sent to, the first batch of North Korean soldiers was already spotted earlier this week in Russia’s Kursk region, according to Ukraine’s defense intelligence.
The area has emerged as an important battlefield in Russia’s war against Ukraine since Ukrainian troops advanced across the border in August.
The Ukrainian intelligence agency estimated the number of North Korean soldiers to Russia at around 12-thousand, including some 500 officers and three generals.
Citing an intercepted conversation from a Russian brigade in Kursk-Oblast, the military intelligence agency said that Russia will assign one Korean language interpreter per 30 North Korean soldiers for communication.
Meanwhile, as its troop deployment to Russia has become apparent, North Korea is no longer denying its military move.
In an interview with the state-run Korean Central News Agency released Friday, the North’s vice foreign minister Kim Jong Gyu said if the “rumors of the dispatch” are true, he believes it will not be in violation of international laws.
Amid the rising concerns of Russia’s transfer of advanced military technology to North Korea in return for the deployment, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said earlier this week that his government is now open to the option of providing lethal weapons to Ukraine.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.