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\nSouth Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to Seoul Monday to criticize Pyongyang\u2019s decision to send thousands of soldiers to support Moscow\u2019s war in Ukraine, the foreign ministry said, calling for their immediate withdrawal.
About 1,500 North Korean special forces soldiers are already in Russia acclimatizing, likely to head to the front lines soon, Seoul\u2019s spy agency said Friday, with additional troops set to depart soon, Pyongyang\u2019s first such deployment overseas.
South Korea, which has long claimed the nuclear-armed North is supplying Russia with weaponry for use in Ukraine, has expressed alarm over the deployment, which comes after Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a military deal in June.
Vice foreign minister Kim Hong-kyun expressed Seoul\u2019s \u201cgrave concerns regarding North Korea\u2019s recent dispatch of troops to Russia and strongly urged the immediate withdrawal of North Korean forces and the cessation of related cooperation,\u201d the ministry said in a statement.
Kim told the Russian ambassador to South Korea, Georgiy Zinoviev, that North Korea supplying Russia with weaponry and troops for the war in Ukraine \u201cposes a significant security threat not only to South Korea but to the international community.\u201d
He also \u201cemphasized that such actions violate multiple UN Security Council resolutions and the UN Charter.\u201d
On Friday, Seoul\u2019s National Intelligence Service (NIS) released detailed satellite images it said showed the first deployment of elite North Korean soldiers being moved by Russian military vessels to Vladivostok.
Seoul\u2019s spy agency said that between October 8 and 13, \u201cNorth Korea transported its special forces to Russia via a Russian Navy transport ship, confirming the start of North Korea\u2019s military participation\u201d in Moscow\u2019s war in Ukraine.
The first contingent of troops \u2014 which South Korean media said were from an elite unit under North Korea\u2019s Special Operations Forces, also known as the \u201cStorm Corps\u201d \u2014 are currently stationed in military bases across Russia\u2019s Far East.
The special forces \u201care expected to be deployed to the front lines (of the Ukraine conflict) as soon as they complete acclimatization training,\u201d according to the NIS.
The NIS also said Friday that the North had \u201cprovided Russia with more than 13,000 containers\u2019 worth of artillery shells, missiles, anti-tank rockets and other lethal weapons\u201d since last August.
Pyongyang and Moscow have been allies since North Korea\u2019s founding after World War II, and have drawn even closer since Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky flagged intelligence reports saying North Korea was training 10,000 soldiers to support Russia in its fight against Kyiv and said Moscow was relying on the North to make up for its substantial losses.
Ukrainian media reported earlier this month that six North Korean military officers were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Russian-occupied territory near Donetsk \u2014 which South Korea\u2019s defense minister said at the time was \u201chighly likely\u201d to be true.<\/p>\n