South Korea planning to send military observers to Ukraine to monitor North Korean troops
The South Korean government is in talks with its parliament to send a group of intelligence officers and joint service experts to Ukraine to analyze the tactics and weaponry used by North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia, the Yonhap news agency reports.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, during a parliamentary committee hearing on defense issues, stated that sending such a group is important for the country's security and emphasized that it is not a military deployment.
"A monitoring team is different from the deployment of troops. The team is not a military unit that operates under a command system and is deployed unarmed. It will consist of a small number of professionals who make a short-term visit," he said.
The South Korean minister also added that the deployment of this group is in the interests of Seoul, not at the request of the UN or Ukraine itself.
On November 4, Europe and South Korea called on North Korea to withdraw its soldiers from Russia and stop supplying weapons for the war against Ukraine.
On the same day, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Russia had transferred about 11,000 military personnel from North Korea to Kursk Oblat.
On November 5, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov reported that Ukrainian military personnel had their first combat encounter with North Korean soldiers.
