[PHOTOS] Seoul’s Spy Agency Shows North Korean Troops in Russia

Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) provided evidence on Friday 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. 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 with claims 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.

NIS also said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspected the special forces’ training on Sept. 11 and Oct. 2 prior to their deployment, citing publicity photos published by North Korean state news agencies. The agency also said that in early August, it discovered the presence of Kim Jong-sik, Pyongyang’s first vice director of the Munitions Industry Department and a key figure in the country’s missile development, “visiting a North Korean KN-23 missile launch site near the Russian-Ukrainian front several times” accompanied by “dozens of North Korean military officers.” NIS also restated Pyongyang’s arms deliveries to Russia, which was covered in a recent Kyiv Post report. On Friday evening, a video of a Russian soldier commenting on what he called foreign reinforcements as men in uniforms filed before him began surfacing on the internet.

The same evening, Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security also released a video allegedly depicting Pyongyang troops, in a Russian military camp, preparing for deployments to Ukraine located in a town called Sergeevka in Russia’s Far East.

While the men in the video appear to be of Asian descent with a foreign language faintly heard in the background, Kyiv Post cannot establish the circumstances surrounding the videos.