00:00Hello and welcome back to Cobra Post breaking news.
00:03Russia's army is forming a unit of some 3,000 North Koreans, a Ukrainian military intelligence
00:09source has told the BBC.
00:11In the latest report suggesting that Pyongyang is forming a close military alliance with
00:15the Kremlin so far, the BBC has yet to see any sign of such a large unit being formed
00:20in Russia's Far East.
00:22And Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has dismissed reports of North Korean involvement.
00:28This is not only British intelligence, it is also American intelligence.
00:33They report it all the time, they don't provide any evidence," he said.
00:37There is no doubt Moscow and Pyongyang have deepened their levels of cooperation in recent
00:42months.
00:43North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Vladimir Putin a birthday message only last week calling
00:48him his closest comrade.
00:51Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky has spoken of North Korea joining the war, and South Korea's
00:56defence minister said this month that the chance of a North Korean deployment in Ukraine
01:00was highly likely.
01:02The biggest question mark is over the numbers involved.
01:05A military source in Russia's Far East confirmed to BBC Russian that a number of North Koreans
01:11have arrived, and were, stationed in one of the military bases near Ashurysk, to the north
01:18of Vladivostok.
01:19But the source refused to give a precise number, other than that they were absolutely nowhere
01:24near 3-0-0-0.
01:27Military experts have told us they doubt Russian army units can successfully incorporate North
01:32Korean soldiers in their thousands.
01:34It wasn't even that easy to include hundreds of Russian prisoners at first, and all those
01:39guys spoke Russian, one analyst, who is in Russia so didn't want to be named, told the
01:44BBC.
01:45Even if they did number 3,000 it would not be big in a battlefield sense, but the US
01:51is as concerned as Ukraine.
01:53It would mark a significant increase in their relationship, said US State Department spokesman
01:58Matthew Miller, who saw it as a new level of desperation by Russia, amid battlefield
02:04losses.
02:05It was back in June that Vladimir Putin toasted a peaceful and defensive pact with Kim Jong-un.
02:11And there is mounting evidence that North Korea is supplying Russia with ammunition,
02:15as recently demonstrated by the recovery of a missile in Ukraine's Poltava region 9 fact.
02:20Reports of mines and shells supplied by Pyongyang date back to December 2023 in telegram chats
02:26involving Russia's military communities.
02:29Russian soldiers, stationed in Ukraine, have often complained about the standard of ammunition
02:34and that dozens of soldiers have been wounded.
02:37Kiev suspects that a unit of North Korean soldiers is preparing in the Ulan-Ude region
02:42close to the Mongolian border ahead of deployment to Russia's Kursk province, where Ukrainian
02:47forces launched an incursion back in August.
02:50They could guard some sections of the Russian-Ukrainian border, which would free Russian units for
02:55fighting elsewhere, said Valery Ryabik, editor of the Ukrainian publication Defense Express.
03:02North Korea may have some 1.28 million active soldiers but its army has no recent experience
03:07of combat operations, unlike Russia's military.
03:12Pyongyang has pursued the old Soviet model in its armed forces but it is unclear how
03:16its main force of motorized infantry units might fit into the war in Ukraine.
03:20Then there is the obvious language barrier and an unfamiliarity with Russian systems
03:25that would complicate any fighting roles.
03:28That does not preclude North Korea's military taking part in Russia's, full-scale war in
03:33Ukraine, but they are most recognized by experts for their engineering and construction abilities,
03:39not for fighting.
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