North Korea troop deployment locks in Russia military alliance [Video]

North Korea’s decision to deploy thousands of soldiers to Ukraine’s front lines cements Pyongyang’s contentious military alliance with Moscow, experts told AFP, and pulls Russia deeper into Korean peninsula security.

About 1,500 North Korean special forces soldiers are already in Russia acclimatising, likely to head to the front lines soon, Seoul’s spy agency said Friday, with thousands more troops set to depart imminently, Pyongyang’s first such deployment overseas.

The move demonstrates that the military deal signed by the North’s Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, which included a mutual defence clause, was not just for show.

“This establishes a framework where Russia’s intervention or military support will automatically occur if North Korea is attacked or faces a crisis,” Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.

The fact that North Korean soldiers will fight alongside Russia in Ukraine proves how …