Russian navy ships moved 1,500 North Korean soldiers to Vladivostok, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service confirmed.

North Korea has dispatched troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, South Korea’s spy agency has said.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed in a statement on Friday that Russian navy ships transferred 1,500 North Korean special operations forces to the Russian port city of Vladivostok from October 8 to October 13.

It said more North Korean soldiers are expected to be sent to Russia soon. The development could draw a third country into the conflict and further escalate tensions between North Korea and the West.

The NIS reported that North Korean soldiers sent to Russia have been provided with Russian military uniforms, weapons and forged identification documents. Currently stationed at military bases in Vladivostok and other locations such as Ussuriysk, Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk, they are expected to be deployed to combat zones once their training is complete.

The spy agency posted on its website satellite and other photos showing what it called Russian navy ship movements near a North Korean port and suspected North Korean mass gatherings in Ussuriysk and Khabarovsk in the past week.

At a news conference on Friday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he “could not yet confirm North Korea is sending troops to Russia”.

South Korean media, citing the NIS, also reported that Pyongyang has decided to dispatch a total of 12,000 soldiers in four brigades to Russia. The NIS did not immediately confirm those reports.

‘Serious security threat’

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol convened an emergency security meeting on Friday on the move, where it was acknowledged that the close military ties between Russia and North Korea had gone “beyond the transfer of military supplies”.

“The current situation, in which the rapprochement between Russia and North Korea has led to the delivery of military equipment and the actual deployment of troops, poses a serious security threat not only to our country but also to the international community,” his office said in a statement.

Ukrainian media reported that six North Korean soldiers were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Russian-occupied territory near Donetsk on October 3.

Russia has denied using North Korean troops in the war, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov describing the claims as “another piece of fake news” during a news conference last week.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his government has intelligence indicating that 10,000 North Korean soldiers are being prepared to join Russian forces in the fight against Ukraine.

He warned that the involvement of a third nation could escalate the conflict into a “world war”.

The United States-based Institute for the Study of War think tank also said that several thousand North Korean soldiers had arrived in Russia and were being prepared for their deployment in Ukraine.

Pyongyang and Moscow have been allies since North Korea’s founding after World War II and have drawn even closer since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

South Korea, backed by the US, claims that Pyongyang has become a major supplier to Russia of weapons being used in Ukraine. The two countries have denied the allegations.

During a meeting in Pyongyang in June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a pact stipulating mutual military assistance if either country is attacked, in what was considered the two countries’ biggest defence deal since the end of the Cold War.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen in recent months amid weapons tests in North Korea and large-scale military exercises in South Korea.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies