Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Monday that North Korea could be planning to send more troops and weapons to aid Russia’s army after more than 3,000 soldiers from the hermit kingdom have been killed and wounded while fighting in Ukraine.
“There are risks of North Korea sending additional troops and military equipment to the Russian army,” Zelensky said Monday after receiving a report from his top military commander. “We will have tangible responses to this.”
Zelensky cited a much higher number of casualties — some 3,000 — among the North Korean troops than previously reported by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service and Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, which listed the number at 1,100 with 100 dead.
The Ukrainian president said his estimate cites preliminary data.
Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean troops among its own fighters battling Ukrainians and Zelensky previously said some Russian soldiers were burning the faces off their dead Korean colleagues.
“Russia is not only involving North Korean soldiers in assaults against Ukrainian positions, but also trying to hide the losses of these people,” Zelensky said last week.
“The Russians are also trying to literally burn the faces of the killed North Korean soldiers,” he added.
