SEOUL: North Korea’s determination to build thousands of soldiers to Ukraine’s back lines cements Pyongyang’s controversial military alliance with Moscow, experts told AFP, and pulls Russia deeper into Korean peninsula protection.
About 1, 500 North Korean special forces soldiers are already in Russia acclimatising, likely to head to the front lines soon, Seoul’s spy agency said on Friday ( Oct 18 ), with thousands more troops set to depart imminently, Pyongyang’s first such deployment overseas.
The action demonstrates that the defense agreement signed by Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in June, which included a mutual defense provision, was not just for display.
In the event of an attack or crisis, Russia’s action or military aid will quickly result, according to Hong Min, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, according to AFP.
According to Hong, the fact that North Korean soldiers will battle alongside Russia in Ukraine demonstrates how” solid” the Putin-Kim deal actually is.
And he added that Pyongyang’s troop boost might encourage Moscow to hold “occupied territories” or promote further territorial gains.
North and South Korea remain technically at war as the 1950 to 1953 conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace deal. Seoul lacks nuclear weapons of its own, despite Kim having an arsenal already in place.
The South is protected by the so-called US nuclear umbrella, and Seoul and Washington routinely conduct large-scale joint military drills, which infuriate Pyongyang.
By sending troops to Russia, Kim could be hoping to create a more integrated North Korean and Russian military deterrent, akin to the US-South Korea alliance, potentially “resulting in a significant shift” in the Koreas ‘ security dynamics, Hong said.