A Pro-Kremlin Telegram account published a picture of Russian and North Korean flags shown together over an explosive mine in the stronghold city of Pokrovsk on Ukraine's eastern front - seemingly indicating that the state has most likely deployed its troops to assist Russia in its long-drawn-out war with Ukraine.
The post, shared by the @rvvoenkor_bot, a blogger, on Monday said:.
The blogger reports that recently the North Korean flag has been hoisted on top of a hill at the mine, near this city, which apparently is one of the possible locations from where North Koreans are stationed.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service revealed on Friday that North Korea had decided to send close to 12 000 special forces in support of Russia's long war with Ukraine, with roughly 1 500 already deployed to the Far East of Russia.
North Korea will for the first time deploy land troops on such a scale, although it has previously sent small teams of soldiers abroad to earn foreign currency.
North Korea's state media has yet to make official comments on troop deployment to Russia.
A North Korean envoy to the United Nations yesterday dismissed the accusations from South Korea and Ukraine that it is sending soldiers to fight alongside Russia in the war in Ukraine as "groundless rumors," arguing its relations with Moscow are "legitimate and cooperative."
On Monday, the Russian Ambassador to South Korea, Georgy Zinoviev, told First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun that cooperation with North Korea "is not directed against South Korea's security interests" and claimed it is "carried out within the framework of international law," the Russian Embassy in Seoul said in a Facebook post.
A South Korean unification ministry official said North Korea has never admitted to deploying its soldiers for it would be an illegal act.
"When the North engages in illegal activities, it does not explicitly acknowledge them," said this official who requested anonymity, mentioning the 2010 sinking of the Cheonan warship, which killed 46 sailors from the South.
In 2010, a team of multinational investigators concluded that a North Korean torpedo sank the ship. But North still denies its involvement.
