Because North Korean soldiers are probably being trained in Russia for deployment in Ukraine, President Zelensky is asking South Korea for help. Until now, Seoul had been hesitant to deliver weapons.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is hoping for military help from South Korea in his defense against Russia after it became known that North Korean soldiers were being sent to the war zone. “We will talk about weapons,” Zelensky announced on his Telegram channel. Ukraine is very interested in help, especially in artillery and anti-aircraft defense.
According to him, 3,000 North Korean soldiers are already in Russian war training camps. Their number will soon rise to 12,000, Zelensky wrote. Moscow and Pyongyang also negotiated the sending of engineer troops and civilians to work in Russian defense factories.
On Telegram, Zelenskyj gave what he considered to be the most important points of his interview with the South Korean television station KBS. Accordingly, the Kremlin is using the soldiers from North Korea to avoid an unpopular mobilization in its own country, which would otherwise be necessary because of the high losses. “North Korea is a way out for (Kremlin chief Vladimir) Putin.” Putin is testing the reaction of the West, NATO and South Korea and, if possible, will recruit even more soldiers from North Korea for the war. For North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, the deployment has the advantage that his army will be war-tested before a possible conflict with the South.
According to consistent information from Seoul, Washington and Kiev, thousands of North Korean soldiers have been relocated to Russia in recent weeks. NATO sees this as a significant escalation of the conflict. Putin does not deny the presence of the soldiers and points out that Ukraine also relies on personnel from NATO countries.
