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Seoul says N. Korea has given Russia 200 long-range artillery pieces / Photo: © KCNA VIA KNS/AFP
Seoul says N. Korea has given Russia 200 long-range artillery pieces
North Korea has given Russia 200 long-range artillery pieces, a South Korean defence ministry official told AFP on Tuesday, as Moscow and Pyongyang deepen their military ties.
The North has given Moscow "some 11,000 troops, missiles, 200 pieces of long-range artillery and a substantial amount of ammunition," the South Korean official said.
North Korea could "additionally supply troops, weapons and ammunition going forward", said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Seoul, Kyiv and Washington have all said that North Korea sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia last year to help the Kremlin in its war against Ukraine.
Ukraine previously said it had captured or killed several North Korean soldiers in Kursk.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has also published footage of interrogations with what he said were North Korean prisoners captured by the Ukrainian army on the Kursk front.
Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have confirmed the deployment.
However, the two countries signed an agreement, including a mutual defence clause, when Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to the nuclear-armed North last year.
- 'Just cause' -
North Korean state media also reported on Sunday that leader Kim Jong Un had pledged to support "the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity".
South Korea's spy agency told AFP this month that North Korean soldiers previously fighting alongside Russia's army on the Kursk front line appear not to have been engaged in combat since mid-January.
Ukraine's military also said it believed North Korean soldiers deployed to the front line in Kursk had been "withdrawn" after suffering heavy losses.
A report by Seoul's defence ministry, submitted to the South Korean parliament's defence committee, warned on Tuesday that the North was "continuing to provide weapons, ammunition and other military support to Russia following its troop deployment in the Ukraine war".
Seoul is "closely monitoring" whether Moscow could "transfer advanced military technologies to North Korea in return for this support", it said.
That included "transfer of technologies related to intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) reentry systems and nuclear-powered submarines", the South warned.
It said that could "significantly elevate Pyongyang's military capabilities".
P. Duarte--JDB
