North Korea may send its soldiers to war against Ukraine - South Korean Defense Ministry

During an address to lawmakers at parliamentary hearings, the minister reminded attendees that Russia and North Korea signed a mutual agreement akin to a military alliance.

"As Russia and North Korea have signed a mutual treaty akin to a military alliance, the possibility of such a deployment is highly likely," the minister said.

He also added that recent reports of North Korean military casualties in temporarily occupied territories in Ukraine are probably true.

North Korean troops in Ukraine

Commenting on the defense minister's statement, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Counteracting Disinformation, said that North Korea has already sent a limited number of its troops to Ukraine, mainly engineers who oversee the quality and use of Pyongyang's weapons by Russian terrorists.

"Some have already died. The munitions and ballistic missiles KN23 are mostly of low quality, which these military personnel report back to Kim," Kovalenko added.

Backstory

On June 20, it became known that during his visit to North Korea, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed an agreement on a comprehensive strategic partnership. This treaty provides for "immediate" mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the countries.

Additionally, in June, Putin attempted to persuade Kim Jong-un to open "diplomatic missions" in the temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon reacted to the possibility of North Korean soldiers being sent to Ukraine to support Russian occupiers. The US Department of Defense said that in such a case, North Korean military personnel could become cannon fodder.

Military expert Pavlo Narozhnyi commented to RBC-Ukraine that sending troops to assist the occupiers could have very negative consequences for North Korea.