This image, captured on Oct. 26 from a video clip posted on the Telegram channel of Para Pax, a pro-Russian military outlet, shows what it claims to be North Korean soldiers being trained at a military training site near Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok. Yonhap
More videos posted on social media and satellite imagery suggest that North Korean soldiers are at Russia’s military training sites for possible deployment in the war in Ukraine, The Washington Post has reported.
Videos and screenshots uploaded on Telegram by a pro-Russian military outlet, Para Pax, show soldiers appearing to be North Koreans at the Sergeevka military training facility near Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East, the newspaper reported Saturday.
Satellite imagery provided by Maxar Technologies indicates increased activities at the training area in recent weeks, the newspaper said, in what could corroborate the claims by South Korea, the United States and its allies that the North is sending its soldiers to fight alongside Russia in the war against Ukraine.
South Korea and the U.S. have said some 3,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia for possible deployment to front lines. Ukraine has claimed the North is preparing to send about 12,000 soldiers.
Both Pyongyang and Moscow had initially dismissed the reports as groundless. But this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s vice foreign minister did not deny the reports, suggesting their effective acknowledgement of the troop deployment.
The newspaper said one video filmed North Korean soldiers, wearing Russian military uniforms and carrying backpacks, moving past a concrete lattice fence, with the person who was filming them saying, “Here they go,” in Russian.
The newspaper also reported, citing Maxar’s satellite imagery, that new structures have been built and new equipment has been installed at the Sergeevka training compound.
Earlier this week, Astra, an outlet claiming to be independent Russian media, released a video showing a group of soldiers appearing to be North Koreans supposedly standing outside the military training site in Vladivostok, talking in a North Korean accent.
Last week, a Ukrainian government-affiliated organization revealed video footage of men appearing to be North Korean soldiers preparing for deployment at a Russian military training center.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday his intelligence agency determines that Russia is expected to deploy North Korean troops to the battlefield starting Oct. 27-28. (Yonhap)
