A North Korean flag has reportedly been raised in an occupied Ukrainian village in the Donbas.
Pyongyang is planning to send up to 12,000 troops to Russia, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS).
The NIS claims that some 1,500 North Koreans have already been transported to Vladivostok by ships from areas near Chongjin, Hamhung and Musudan.
Video images published to social media channels last week appear to show North Korean forces training at a military base in Russia’s Far East.
Now, a new photo shows a North Korean flag next to a Russian one in the occupied village of Tsukuryne in the Pokrovsk region.
The settlement is about 60 kilometres to the southeast of Pokrovsk, a key transport and logistics hub for Ukraine’s army.
Russian forces are rapidly bearing down on the city, as they seek a to make a major breakthrough before the winter sets in.
South Korea has reacted furiously to the reported deployment of North Korean troops to Russia, saying it will take appropriate countermeasures.
This might include supplying Ukraine’s army with much-needed ammunition and weapons, such as 155mm artillery shells.
Seoul has so far only supplied Kyiv with nonlethal aid, including de-mining equipment.
However, a senior official in President Yoon Suk-Yeol’s office gave the strongest hint yet that the government could reconsider its original refusal to deliver weapons.
“We would consider supplying weapons for defensive purposes as part of the step-by-step scenarios, and if it seems they are going too far, we might also consider offensive use,” the official told reporters.
North Korea has denied it has sent any troops to fight in Ukraine for Russia and accused Seoul of spreading unfounded rumours.
A Pyongyang official told a a committee meeting at the UN General Assembly: “As for the so-called military cooperation with Russia, my delegation does not feel any need for comment on such groundless, stereotyped rumours.”
The Kremlin has also rejected reports of North Korean soldiers being deployed in Ukraine as “fake news”.
Moscow and Pyongyang have strengthened their ties in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un signed a security pact in June, which pledged that their countries would help each other in the event of “aggression” against either country.
Last week, the Russian President introduced a bill to ratify the pact.
