South Korea plans to send monitoring team to Ukraine amid North Korean troop presence

The South Korean government reportedly plans to send an undisclosed number of personnel to Ukraine to monitor North Korean troops, as reports emerge of North Korean troops operating in Russia’s Kursk Oblast and Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, ISW reports.

A senior South Korean presidential office official stated on 30 October that monitoring North Korean troops deployed to Russia was the government’s “duty,” the South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh reported.

“The fact that North Korea could, through the war in Ukraine, amass real combat experience on the ground and learn techniques of modern warfare could come back as a direct military threat against us. Defensively speaking, we have a legitimate need to analyze their activities,” the presidential office official told reporters, according to Hankyoreh.

According to Yonhap, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun claimed on 31 October that such deployment could proceed without parliamentary approval, citing a ministry directive. However, Hankyoreh reports that legal experts have questioned the constitutionality of this approach, while opposition parties have threatened to impeach the defense minister if any deployment occurs without parliamentary consent.

The announcement follows earlier considerations of such deployment. Yonhap News Agency reported on 22 October that a South Korean government source indicated plans to send military personnel, likely from intelligence units, to question captured North Koreans and monitor their forces’ tactics and combat capabilities.

Regarding the North Korean presence in Ukraine, Andrii Kovalenko, Head of the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, reported on 31 October that 3,000 North Korean military personnel are currently stationed in Kursk Oblast, with additional engineering personnel present in occupied Donetsk Oblast.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on 29 October that he had discussed enhanced intelligence cooperation with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

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