Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to confirm that North Korean troops are in Russia, amid concerns that soldiers had been sent for possible deployment to Ukraine.
The Russian president addressed satellite images released by South Korea’s intelligence service which purportedly showed the soldiers in Russian territory.
“Images are a serious thing; if there are images, they reflect something,” he told foreign journalists on Thursday, per The Washington Post.
Putin also pointed to the newly signed security treaty between the two countries, which includes a mutual defense clause.
“As for our relations with the DPRK, the treaty was ratified today; it has Article 4. We have never doubted that North Korean leadership takes the agreement seriously,” Putin said.
Newsweek contacted the Russian defense ministry via email.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed on Wednesday that there was evidence of North Korean troops in Russia, and said it would be “very, very serious” if they were preparing to fight in Ukraine.
White House spokesperson John Kirby added that the U.S. believes at least 3,000 North Korean troops are being trained in Russia, and said that if they were deployed against Ukraine they would be “fair game.”
South Korea’s intelligence service last week released satellite images appearing to show North Korean troops at a training ground in Russia’s Far East.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (L) shaking hands during their meeting at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur region on September 13, 2023. Putin addressed reports that North Korea has sent soldiers to Russia.
Vladimir SMIRNOV/AFP via Getty Images
The agency also told NBC News that it had used artificial intelligence facial-recognition technology to confirm the sighting of a North Korean soldier in Ukraine.
The South Korean spy agency has said it estimates that Pyongyang will send as many as 12,000 personnel, including special operations forces, and that most will have arrived in Russia by December.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency separately claimed that one group of North Korean soldiers has been sent to the Russian border region Kursk, where Ukraine has been conducting an incursion.
North Korea previously dismissed allegations that it had sent its troops to Russia to assist in the war against Ukraine, calling them “groundless, stereotype rumors.”
North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine would mark the first foreign war in the country’s history.
The Asian nation has remained one of Russia’s few international allies following its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, continually supplying Russia with critical weapons to replenish its dwindling supplies.
On Thursday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said his government “won’t sit idle” if its neighbor is sending troops to Russia.
He said this could include reviewing the country’s longstanding policy of not supplying lethal weapons to countries engaged in conflict.
