Seoul says North Korea has deployed more troops to Russia

North Korea sends more troops to Russia, redeploys forces to Kursk frontline, says Seoul

SEOUL:

North Korea has sent more soldiers to Russia and re-deployed several to the frontline in Kursk, Seoul's spy agency told AFP on Thursday.

South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have said that more than 10,000 soldiers from the reclusive state were sent to Russia last year to help it fight a shock Ukrainian offensive into the Kursk border region.

Seoul said this month North Korean soldiers previously fighting alongside Russia's army on the Kursk frontline had not been engaged in combat since mid-January.

Ukraine also said they had been withdrawn following heavy losses.

However, an official from Seoul's National Intelligence Agency said on Thursday they had been "redeployed" there.

That came alongside "some additional troop deployments appearing to have taken place", the official added. "The exact scale is still being assessed," the official said.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have confirmed the deployment.

The two countries signed an agreement, including a mutual defence clause, when Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to the nuclear-armed North last year.