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\nNorth Korea has not sent troops to Russia to help Moscow fight Ukraine, one of its United Nations representatives said Monday, dismissing Seoul\u2019s claims as \u201cgroundless rumor\u201d.
Seoul\u2019s spy agency said Friday that Pyongyang sent a \u201clarge-scale\u201d troop deployment to help its ally, claiming that 1,500 special forces were already training in Russia\u2019s Far East and ready to head soon for the frontlines of the Ukraine war.
\u201cAs for the so-called military cooperation with Russia, my delegation does not feel any need for comment on such groundless stereotyped rumors,\u201d a North Korean representative said at a committee meeting during the UN General Assembly.
Seoul\u2019s claims were \u201caimed at smearing the image of the DPRK and undermining the legitimate, friendly and cooperative relations between two sovereign states,\u201d the representative told the meeting, held late Monday in New York.
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, with Seoul and Washington long claiming that Kim Jong Un has been sending weapons for use in Ukraine.
North Korean state media have not commented on the purported troop deployment.
Russia has also not confirmed the troop deployment, but defended its military cooperation with the North.
After Seoul summoned Moscow\u2019s ambassador in South Korea to complain, the envoy \u201cstressed that cooperation between Russia and North Korea\u2026 is not directed against the interests of South Korea\u2019s security.\u201d
Neither NATO nor the United States have confirmed the deployment, but both have cast it as a potentially dangerous escalation in the long-running Ukraine conflict.
\u201cWe have seen reports the DPRK has sent forces and is preparing to send additional soldiers to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia,\u201d Robert Wood, US ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council.
\u201cIf true, this marks a dangerous and highly concerning development and an obvious deepening of the DPRK-Russia military relationship,\u201d Wood said.
The United States and its allies have already voiced concern about North Korea providing weapons to Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
On Tuesday, the Yonhap agency reported that the South Korean government is considering sending a team of personnel to Ukraine to monitor North Korean troops being deployed, citing a government source.
According to the source, if deployed the team will likely consist of military personnel from intelligence divisions to analyse North Korean battlefield strategies and participate in interrogating any captured prisoners of war.
Yonhap also reported that a pro-Russia Telegram account posted a photo showing the Russian and North Korean flags side by side on a Ukrainian battlefield.<\/p>\n