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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea sent around 3,000 additional troops to Russia in January and February in continued support for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, South Korea’s military said Thursday in its latest assessment.
The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea has also been sending more missiles, artillery equipment and ammunition to help Russia and that North Korea could increase its weapons supplies further depending on the war situation. Russia and Ukraine recently agreed on a limited ceasefire, though both sides have accused each other of violations.
The military equipment North Korea has sent to Russia includes a “considerable amount” of short-range ballistic missiles, 170 millimeter self-propelled howitzers and around 220 units of 240 millimeter multiple rocket launchers.
North Korea has sent approximately 11,000 military personnel to fight in the war against Ukraine in its first involvement in a large-scale conflict since the 1950-53 Korean War, and the Joint Chiefs assessed that around 4,000 of them have been killed or wounded.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service previously attributed the high North Korean casualties to the troops’ likely struggles in adapting to drones and other elements of modern warfare. North Korean troops are further disadvantaged by the crude tactics of their Russian commanders, who have sent them into assault campaigns without providing rear-fire support, the spy agency told lawmakers in January.
Still, Ukrainian military and intelligence officials have assessed that the North Koreans are gaining crucial battlefield experience and have been key to Russia’s strategy of overwhelming Ukraine by throwing large numbers of soldiers into the battle for Kursk.
The South Korean military report came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed his unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine during a meeting with a top Russian security official, Sergei Shoigu, last week in Pyongyang. State media reports said Kim and Shoigu reaffirmed their commitment to uphold a major mutual defense treaty agreed upon last year. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told Russian media on Thursday that the governments were discussing a potential visit by Kim to Moscow but did not specify when it might take place.
“We always talk to everyone about exchanging visits. We are always preparing,” he told RIA Novosti.
Kim showcases new military drones
Kim’s military support of Russia has raised concerns that he may receive Russian technology transfers in return, further strengthening the threat posed by his nuclear-armed military. Experts say aircraft and drones are among the potential areas where North Korea might seek to acquire Russian technology and know-how.
North Korean state media said Thursday that Kim observed tests of newly developed reconnaissance and attack drones this week and called for their increased production. Kim in recent months has been emphasizing the development of drones, and the tests were the latest display of his country’s growing military capabilities.
Photos released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency showed Kim observing a large reconnaissance drone resembling the U.S.-made RQ-4B Global Hawk, first unveiled during a 2023 military exhibition. Other photos showed Kim boarding what appeared to be an airborne early-warning aircraft, similar in appearance to the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail. Other images showed exploding drones crashing into military vehicles used as targets.
The agency said the test demonstrated the reconnaissance drone’s ability to track multiple targets and monitor troop movements on land and at sea, potentially enhancing North Korea’s intelligence-gathering operations and ability to neutralize enemy threats. The report said the new exploding drones are designed for various attack missions and feature unspecified artificial intelligence capabilities.
Kim expressed satisfaction with the drones’ performance and approved plans to expand production, emphasizing that drones and AI should be “top” priorities in efforts to advance his armed forces and adapt them to modern warfare, KCNA said. The agency said the tests took place as Kim visited a drone technology complex and an electronic warfare research group on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Kim previously inspected other demonstrations of drones that explode on impact in November and August last year.
When asked about the possibly early-warning aircraft, which North Korean state media unveiled for the first time, Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the North likely modified an existing plane to create an early-warning aircraft and may have used certain components from Russia. He said the aircraft’s operational capabilities have yet to be proven.
“As you can see, it looks quite cumbersome and we assess that it’s likely vulnerable to interception,” Lee said during a briefing, without elaborating further on the assessment. __ AP writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.
