South Korea on Wednesday said North Korean troops have not yet engaged in full-fledged combat with Ukrainian forces, amid claims of Pyongyang's deployment of soldiers in Russia to support its "special military operation," Yonhap news reported.
A senior presidential official shared this assessment with reporters after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed about the first combat engagement between North Korean and Ukrainian forces.
"A large number of North Korean troops deployed to Russia have already moved to the western front lines, but full-fledged combat has not yet begun," the unnamed official said.
The official added that Seoul is considering sending a monitoring team to Ukraine to observe North Korean troops' joint operations alongside Russian forces.
"If North Korea and Russia launch joint combat operations, it will be critical to monitor their tactics, weapons, and any North Korean casualties, as this information could be crucial for South Korea's security and collaboration with Ukraine," the official said.
In a video address on Tuesday, Zelenskyy said "the first battles with North Korean soldiers open a new page of instability in the world."
According to him, some 11,000 North Korean soldiers are in Russia's western front line Kursk region, where Kyiv launched an incursion in August.
