By Hyonhee Shin
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s navy mentioned on Monday it had detected indicators of North Korea getting ready to ship extra troops and weapons, together with suicide drones, to Russia to assist its warfare towards Ukraine.
North Korea has already provided a number of 240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled howitzers, and was seen getting ready to provide extra suicide drones to ship to Russia after chief Kim Jong Un led a check final month, in response to Seoul Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). ).
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“Suicide drones are one of many duties that Kim Jong Un has been specializing in,” a JCS official mentioned, including that the North has expressed intent to provide them to Russia.
Such drones have been extensively utilized in Ukraine’s warfare and Kim has ordered mass manufacturing of aerial weapons and an improve of navy concept and schooling, citing intensifying world competitors, state media reported.
Seoul, Washington and Kiev have mentioned there are about 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia. The JCS mentioned not less than 1,100 of them had been killed or wounded, in keeping with a briefing final week by South Korea’s spy company that reported round 100 useless and one other 1,000 wounded within the Kursk area.
Pyongyang’s rising navy ties with Moscow may pose a larger menace to Seoul because it modernizes its standard forces, believed to be inferior to these of the South, and beneficial properties fight expertise, the official mentioned.
Along the closely fortified Korean border, the North has despatched as much as 10,000 troopers to show the world right into a wasteland and set up boundaries and barbed wire in current weeks, though the quantity dropped to a number of hundred over the weekend, he mentioned. mentioned the JCS.
The JCS launched pictures displaying a gaggle of North Korean troops testing electrified wire fencing utilizing a goat.
There can also be the chance that the North will check an intermediate-range hypersonic missile later this yr earlier than US President-elect Donald Trump takes workplace, whereas sending extra rubbish balloons to the South, he added.
North Korea has launched hundreds of balloons with rubbish luggage connected since late May, saying it was responding to balloons carrying propaganda leaflets flown by South Korean activists.
“With Russia’s assist, they are going to most likely attempt to stage varied strategic provocations subsequent yr, equivalent to launching intercontinental ballistic missiles and conducting a nuclear check to extend its negotiating energy with the United States,” the official mentioned .
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Ed Davies)
