SEOUL — North Korea has shipped 1,500 special forces troops to Russia's far east for training and acclimatising at local military bases and will likely be deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine, South Korea's spy agency said on Oct 18.

The South's National Intelligence Service (NIS) also said it had been working with Ukrainian intelligence service and had used facial recognition artificial intelligence (AI) technology to identify North Korean officers in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region supporting Russian forces firing North Korean missiles.

In more than 13,000 containers, North Korea has shipped artillery rounds, ballistic missiles and anti-tank rockets to Russia since August 2023, the agency said, based on the remnants of weapons recovered from the battle front in Ukraine.

In all, more than eight million artillery and rocket rounds have been shipped to Russia, it said.

"The direct military co-operation between Russia and North Korea that has been reported by foreign media has now been officially confirmed," the spy agency said in a statement.

Earlier, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol called an unscheduled security meeting with key intelligence, military and national security officials to discuss North Korean troops' involvement in Russia's war against Ukraine, Mr Yoon's office said.

"The participants... shared the view that the current situation where Russia and North Korea's closer ties have gone beyond the movement of military supplies to actual dispatch of troops is a grave security threat not only to our country, but to the international community," it added. 

South Korea will respond to the North's activities with all available means, it added, without elaborating on what actions it might take.

Seoul, which has emerged as a major global arms exporter, selling fighter jets, mechanised howitzers and missiles, has come under pressure from some Western allies including Washington to help arm Ukraine with lethal weapons but has stopped short of openly doing so.

Professor Ramon Pacheco Pardo of King's College London said despite the gravity of the development, it may not be heavy enough to shift Seoul's position.

"When it comes to South Korea, I think that its red line is Russia providing support to North Korea that allows Pyongyang to substantially improve its nuclear and missile programme, not North Korea's support for Russia," he said.

Vessels belonging to Russia's Pacific Fleet were detected moving about 1,500 North Korean special forces troops to Vladivostok from Oct 8 to Oct 13 and are expected to resume the shipment of troops soon, said the NIS.

The troops have been supplied with Russian military uniforms and weapons as well as fake identification documents for when they are deployed for combat, the NIS added.

The agency said it used facial recognition AI to identify with a high degree of accuracy technical military officers from the North Korean military in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, where they are supporting Russia's missile offencive and helping with technical glitches.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused North Korea on Oct 17 of deploying officers alongside Russia and preparing to send thousands of troops to help Moscow's war effort, although Nato chief Mark Rutte said there was no evidence of Pyongyang's presence at this stage.

Mr Zelensky said about 10,000 North Korean soldiers are preparing for deployment to fight Ukraine, but Kyiv's Western allies have yet to confirm its assertion that Pyongyang is sending troops, though they say they are studying it.

Since their summit in the Russian far east in 2023, North Korea and Russia have dramatically upgraded their military ties, and their leaders met in June to sign a comprehensive strategic partnership that includes a mutual defence pact.

Russia and North Korea both deny they have engaged in arms transfers.

The Kremlin has also dismissed South Korean assertions that North Korea may have sent some military personnel to help Russia against Ukraine.

North Korea has 1.28 million active duty troops, according to the South's latest data and has stepped up its development of a series of ballistic missiles and a nuclear arsenal, fuelling regional tension and drawing international sanctions.

Deploying troops to Russia, if confirmed, would be its first major involvement in a war since the 1950-1953 Korean War.

North Korea reportedly sent a much smaller contingent to the Vietnam War and to the civil conflict in Syria.

Source: Reuters