South Korea Demands 'Immediate Withdrawal' of North Korean Troops in Russia

South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador, Georgiy Zinoviev, on Monday, Oct. 21, to criticize North Korea's decision to dispatch thousands of soldiers to support Russia's troops in Ukraine, the foreign ministry said, calling for their immediate withdrawal.

Approximately 1,500 North Korean special forces are already in Russia, getting acclimated and expected to head to the front lines soon, South Korea's intelligence agency reported on Friday, Oct. 18.

Additional North Korean troops are expected to be deployed soon, marking Pyongyang's first overseas military deployment.

South Korea has repeatedly claimed that North Korea, a nuclear-armed state, has been supplying weapons to Russia for use in Ukraine following a military agreement signed between Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin in June.

Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) provided evidence on Friday, Oct. 18, of what it said were North Korean troops’ deployments to Russia before participating in the war in Ukraine, including a series of satellite images of troop concentration. 

NIS’s Friday press release detailed the agency’s findings on Pyongyang’s troop movements, which said those deployed to Russia consisted of “1,500 North Korean special forces from the areas near Chongjin, Hamhung, and Musudan” of the country.

It said they were transported by “four landing ships and three escort ships belonging to the Russian Pacific Fleet” between Oct. 8 and Oct. 13. 

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NIS said that “this is the first time that the Russian Navy has entered North Korean waters since 1990” and added that another round of troop transportation, presumably by similar means, is scheduled. 

The agency said the North Korean troops were dispersed in multiple bases in Russia’s Far East and claimed that they were issued “fake ID cards of residents of the Yakutia and Buryatia regions of Siberia” on top of Russian uniforms and weapons in a bid to conceal their identity. 

The claim corroborated earlier assertions by Ukrainian defense intelligence (HUR) that a “Special Buryat Battalion” was created in Russia to incorporate the Pyongyang troops.

“The North Korean soldiers dispatched to Russia are currently stationed at Russian military bases in the Far East, including Vladivostok, Ussuriysk, Khabarovsk, and Blagoveshchensk, and are expected to be deployed to the front lines as soon as they complete their adaptation training,” read the press release. 

Two videos, which appeared late evening on Friday, Oct. 18, showed North Korean soldiers being equipped with Russian uniforms at the Sergiev training ground in Russia. Kyiv Post sources have confirmed that Korean was spoken in two separate videos.