North Korea has claimed reports it has sent soldiers to fight with Russia against Ukraine are "groundless rumors," the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported on Oct. 22, citing a North Korean representative to the United Nations.
The statement is Pyongyang's first public reaction to multiple reports of such a deployment from Kyiv and Seoul.
Moscow is planning to involve Pyongyang in the full-scale war against Ukraine in the coming months, with around 10,000 North Korean soldiers being prepared to join the Russian army, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said that the first group of 2,600 soldiers will be deployed to Russia's Kursk Oblast, where Ukraine began a cross-border incursion in August and still holds significant swathes of territory.
Speaking at the U.N. meeting, the North Korean representative described relations between Pyongyang and Moscow as "legitimate, friendly and cooperative."
"As for the so-called military cooperation with Russia, my delegation does not feel any need for comment on such groundless stereotyped rumors aimed at smearing the image of the DPRK," he said.
The Kremlin on Oct. 21 called such reports "contradictory" but did not confirm nor deny the claims.
A Western official told the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 15 that 10,000 North Korean soliders had already been sent to Russia. Lt. General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence service, put the number at 11,000 and said they'd be "ready to fight" by Nov. 1.
A video purportedly showing them at a military training camp inside Russia has also surfaced online.
Moscow and Pyongyang have deepened military cooperation as Russia seeks arms and other support in its full-scale war against Ukraine.
North Korea has been supplying Russia with ballistic missiles and vast quantities of artillery shells.
Chris York
