SEOUL, South Korea (AP) 鈥 South Korea鈥檚 military said Friday it suspects North Korea is preparing to send additional troops to Russia after its soldiers fighting in the Russian-Ukraine war suffered heavy casualties.
South Korea鈥檚 Joint Chiefs of Staff also assessed in a report distributed to journalists that North Korea is continuing its preparations to test-fire an intended to reach the United States.
President Donald Trump鈥檚 return to the White House may brighten Pyongyang's prospects for high-level diplomacy with Washington, as he met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un three times during his first term. Many experts say Kim likely thinks his evolving nuclear program and expanding military cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin could give him a greater leverage than during his 2018-19 summits with Trump.
North Korea has been supplying a vast amount of artillery and other to Russia, and last October it sent about 10,000-12,000 as well, according to U.S., South Korean and Ukraine intelligences. Seoul, Washington and others worry Russia could in return transfer to North Korea sophisticated weapons technologies that can enhance its nuclear program.
North Korean soldiers are considered to be highly disciplined and well-trained, but their lack of combat experiences and unfamiliarity with the largely flat plains that make up most battlefields in the Russian-Ukraine war have made them easy targets for drone and artillery strikes.
South Korea鈥檚 spy agency said last week that it assessed about 300 North Korean soldiers had died and another 2,700 had been injured. Earlier in January, Ukrainian President put the , though U.S. estimates were lower at around 1,200.
The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said that North Korea is believed to be accelerating preparations to send more troops to Russia, without saying how it reached the assessment.
Deepening military ties between North Korea and Russia could embolden Kim over his dealings with the U.S. and South Korea. In a major political conference last month, Kim vowed to implement the . But many experts say Kim may eventually want to sit down for talks with Trump if he thinks the U.S. president could make concessions.
Their previous after Trump rejected Kim鈥檚 offer to dismantle his main nuclear complex, a limited denuclearization step, in return for extensive sanctions relief. Kim has since sharply increased the pace of to expand an arsenal of nuclear missiles targeting the U.S. and South Korea.
In South Korea, there are concerns that Trump might give up the goal of a complete denuclearization of North Korea and focus on eliminating its long-range missile program that poses a direct threat to the U.S., while leaving its nuclear attack capabilities against South Korea intact.
During a Fox News interview broadcast Thursday, Trump called Kim 鈥渁 smart guy鈥 and 鈥渘ot a religious zealot.鈥 Asked over whether he will reach out to Kim again, Trump replied that 鈥淚 will, yeah.鈥
On Monday, Trump called North Korea 鈥渁 nuclear power鈥 as he boasted of his personal ties with Kim. That created a stir in South Korea, as Washington, Seoul and their partners have long avoided describing North Korea as a nuclear state out of worries that it could be seen as accepting its pursuit of nuclear weapons in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
鈥淚 was very friendly with him. He liked me. I liked him,鈥 Trump said during a press availability at the Oval Office after his inauguration. 鈥淣ow he is a nuclear power. But we got along. I think he鈥檒l be happy to see I鈥檓 coming back.鈥
Jeon Ha Gyu, a spokesperson for the South Korean Defense Ministry, told reporters Tuesday that efforts to achieve North Korea鈥檚 denuclearization must be continued as a prerequisite to realize lasting peace not only on the Korean Peninsula but also in the world. South Korea鈥檚 Foreign Ministry also said it will closely coordinate with the Trump administration to achieve North Korea's denuclearization.
North Korea hasn鈥檛 responded to Trump鈥檚 comments. A state media report Friday on the closely watched two-day parliament meeting in Pyongyang this week didn鈥檛 say whether Kim attended it, and the report made no mention of the U.S., South Korea, Russia or other foreign policy issues.
