A South Korean government delegation is set to visit Belgium next week to share information with NATO and European Union officials regarding North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia.
The delegation, led by Hong Jang-won, the first deputy director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), will visit NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday to brief on the deepening military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow, the agency said in a statement, News.Az reports, citing Yonhap.
Representatives from all 32 NATO member countries are expected to attend the briefing, which will be followed by another briefing session at the EU’s Political and Security Committee, according to the NIS.
The visit is a follow-up measure after NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had requested the dispatch of a South Korean team during a phone conversation with President Yoon Suk Yeol on Monday.
In addition, the delegation will hold talks with Rutte and other senior NATO and EU officials.
South Korea and the United States have said North Korea sent around 3,000 troops to eastern Russia, with the NIS expecting about 10,000 soldiers to be deployed by December.
The deployment of a significant contingent of North Korean troops, including elite military units, would mark a major enhancement of the North’s military ties with Russia, which had previously been limited to supplying artillery shells and short-range ballistic missiles.
Seoul is concerned that North Korean troops could actively support Russian forces in its prolonged war with Ukraine, which it views as a violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service has already claimed that the first units of North Korean soldiers trained in Russia have already been deployed in the Kursk region.
“The first units of the military from the DPRK, which were trained at the eastern Russian training grounds, have already arrived in the combat zone of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In particular, on October 23, 2024, their presence was recorded in the Kursk region,” the Ukrainian intelligence agency said in a statement.