Russia is negotiating with North Korea to increase the number of military personnel and to engage civilians to work in Russia.
This was announced by Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an interview with the South Korean TV channel KBS.
According to him, the DPRK first handed over 3.5 million artillery shells to Russia. Then there were missiles.
‘Now we are talking about a contingent that will fight against us. Today, we already know that 3,000 North Korean troops are already in the training camp. We know that the number will be increased in the near future to 12,000. Soldiers, officers... We also know that there is an agreement on the supply of engineer troops, as well as civilians, a large number of civilians from North Korea, to work at certain military plants in Russia,’ the Ukrainian president said.
As for the West's reaction to the DPRK's involvement in the war on the side of Russia, Zelenskyy believes that the situation with Crimea could repeat itself.
‘When the West and various partners did not react to Putin's occupation of our Crimean peninsula 10 years ago, there were no loud steps, except for very quiet statements. Then Putin launched a full-scale invasion. The same with the North Korean contingent,’ the Head of State added and noted that Russian dictator Putin was testing the reaction of the West, NATO countries and, in particular, South Korea.
‘The reaction as of today is nothing, it is zero,’ the Ukrainian president said.
Currently, North Korean soldiers are already in the Kursk Region. There have been no clashes with the Ukrainian military, but it is a matter of days.
The day before, Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said that he considered the world's reaction to the DPRK's sending its military to fight on the side of Russia to be insufficiently serious.
DPRK's participation in the war
In September, the head of the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, Kyrylo Budanov, said that Pyongyang posed the most problems for Ukraine among Moscow's allies. North Korea supplies the Russians with aid incomparable to others.