North Korea has sent additional shipments of artillery and rocket launchers to Russia to support its war against Ukraine as its troops enter combat, a South Korean lawmaker said on Wednesday.
Seoul has accused the North of sending thousands of soldiers and container-loads of weapons to Russia as military ties between the two countries have grown closer, despite rafts of sanctions on both.
The South’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) “has confirmed that the North has shipped 170mm self-propelled artillery and long-range 240mm rocket launchers”, Lee Seong-kweun, who serves on a parliamentary intelligence committee, said after an NIS briefing.
Pyongyang has also dispatched additional personnel to maintain and repair the new weapons, as they are not part of Russia’s conventional arsenal, he added, without providing details.
Lee said some of the roughly 11,000 North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia’s western Kursk region have engaged in combat, according to Seoul’s spy agency.
“They have been assigned to Russia’s airborne brigade and marine corps, undergoing tactical and response training. Some of them are assessed to have engaged in combat,” he said.
As a result, the NIS believes that “casualties are occurring” among the North Koreans, he said.
Neither Pyongyang nor Moscow has confirmed the presence of North Korean troops in Russia.
Pyongyang said last month that any troop deployment to Russia would comply with international law.
The nuclear-armed North has publicly strengthened military ties with Russia in recent years.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Pyongyang in June, where he signed a mutual defence agreement with leader Kim Jong Un.
Analysts have warned that the North’s recent ramping up of artillery and cruise missile testing and production could be in preparation for further shipments to Russia.
North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia has led to a shift in tone from Seoul, which has resisted calls to send lethal weapons to Kyiv so far but recently indicated it might change its longstanding policy.
