Ukrainian intelligence services have released audio of what they claim are Russian troops complaining about the arrival of North Korean fighters and bickering over how they will be equipped.
In one recording, a few soldiers can be heard belly-aching about the so-called ‘K Battalion’, referring to them as ‘damn Chinese’ and stating that one of his fellow soldiers had said ‘who knows what the f***ing Chinese’ **we have to make do with them’.
Another excerpt obtained by the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Agency (GUR) appeared to reveal the lack of communication and planning regarding the integration of North Korean forces with their Russian counterparts.
“He was just talking about the K battalion, I say: ‘And who will get the weapons and ammunition for them?’ We have rations, and from what I hear they are for the brigade,” groaned a Russian soldier.
“He said, ‘What bloody brigade?’ You get everything.” I just said I understood everything and went outside to smoke.’
It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sounded the alarm that troops from Pyongyang could be deployed to the front lines to fight Kiev’s defenders as early as Sunday.
The Russian lower parliament has now unanimously ratified a defense treaty with North Korea that was concluded between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un during the Russian president’s state visit to the North Korean capital in June.
A leaked video shows North Korean troops in Russia equipped with military equipment
A Russian soldier fires from the D-30 howitzer towards Ukrainian positions at a secret location in Ukraine
Ukraine’s president has warned that North Korea’s involvement could hasten the outbreak of World War III
Putin and Kim clash glasses during the former’s visit to Pyongyang
South Korea has urged Russia to end its “illegal cooperation” with Pyongyang and expressed “grave concerns” this morning after Moscow ratified its defense pact, which stipulates that each party offering help if the other person is confronted with aggression.
The treaty will now be sent to the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, for approval.
Shortly after Seoul’s warning, Zelensky said Russia planned to send North Korean troops into battle against his country as early as Sunday and urged world leaders to apply “tangible pressure” on Pyongyang.
South Korea and the United States said thousands of North Korean troops were training in Russia.
Ukraine said this week that North Korean soldiers had arrived in the “combat zone” in the Russian border region of Kursk.
While North Korea would not confirm it had taken action, it said any troop deployment to Russia would be in accordance with international law.
“(Seoul) expresses its grave concern over Russia’s ratification of the Russia-North Korea treaty, amid the continued deployment of North Korean troops in Russia,” South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement .
It added that the South Korean government “strongly urges the immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops and an end to illegal cooperation.”
Seoul said it would work with allies to take “appropriate measures” against the move, and the country – a major arms exporter – has suggested it could revise long-standing policies to avoid sending weapons directly to Kiev.
Zelenskiy said after meeting with defense officials on Friday that North Korean troops could be deployed this weekend to fight Ukrainian forces.
“According to intelligence reports, Russia will deploy the first North Korean army to combat areas on October 27 and 28,” he said on social media.
“North Korea’s actual involvement in hostilities should not be met with a blind eye and confused comments, but with tangible pressure on both Moscow and Pyongyang to uphold the UN Charter and sanction escalation,” he added .
A senior official within the Ukrainian president’s office said North Korean forces could be deployed in combat in Russia’s Kursk region or in eastern Ukraine.
Putin said in an interview broadcast on state television on Friday that it was up to Moscow how it used the treaty’s clause on mutual military assistance.
‘What action we take with this clause is still up for debate. We are in contact with our North Korean friends,” Putin said.
‘I mean to say that it is our sovereign decision whether we use something or not. Where, how, whether we need it, or (if) for example we just do some exercises, train, pass on some experience – that is our business,” he added.
Seoul and Washington have long alleged that the nuclear-armed North is sending large arms shipments to Russia.
One of North Korea’s representatives to the United Nations said at the UN General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security that the country was sending neither weapons nor soldiers to help Moscow.
The accusations from South Korea and others are “nothing more than baseless rumors aimed at tarnishing the image of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Rim Mu Song said, referring to the North by its official name.
“It is yet another smear campaign by Ukraine” to “get more weapons and financial support from the US and Western countries.”
North Korean soldiers are seen smashing concrete blocks during a demonstration for Kim and senior officials
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un points a gun while visiting a training base
A new 600mm multiple rocket launcher is being tested at an undisclosed location in North Korea
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un meet in Pyongyang, June 19, 2024
South Korea’s representative flagged videos circulating online of North Korean soldiers in Russian uniforms speaking Korean, but Rim said they “once again completely reject the accusation” of troop deployment.
On Friday, however, a diplomatic official argued that Pyongyang would be well within its rights to deploy soldiers on Russian soil.
“If there is such a thing that the world media is talking about, I think it will be an act that is in accordance with the rules of international law,” said Kim Jong Gyu, deputy foreign minister in charge of Russian affairs.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has called the deployment a “provocation that threatens global security beyond the Korean Peninsula and Europe.”
Yoon also said South Korea will “revise” its position on supplying weapons to Ukraine in the war with Russia, which the country has long opposed.
Seoul has already sold billions of dollars worth of tanks, howitzers, attack planes and rocket launchers to Poland, a key ally of Kiev.
In June, South Korea agreed to transfer the knowledge needed to build K2 tanks to Poland, which experts say could be an important step toward production in Ukraine.
South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace has signed a $1.64 billion deal with Poland for the supply of rocket artillery units.
North Korea has adopted a new national anthem, state media reported on Friday. A new move that experts suspect will further leader Kim Jong Un’s drive to define his country as completely separate from and in opposition to the South.
North Korea amended its constitution to define the South as a “hostile” state and last week blew up roads and railways that once linked the two countries.