SEOUL: South Korea’s intelligence agency revealed evidence of North Korean troop deployment to Russia, supported by satellite images captured by one of its own satellites, a government source disclosed on Sunday. The images indicate North Korea’s support of Russia in its ongoing war in Ukraine, a move that has raised international concerns.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) presented three photos on Friday to confirm North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia. While two of the images were credited to Airbus, a global satellite imagery provider, the third image was initially unattributed. It has now been confirmed that this photo was captured by a South Korean-operated satellite, equipped with advanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology capable of capturing data in all weather conditions through remote sensing systems.
The NIS disclosed that North Korea plans to send approximately 12,000 troops to Russia, with 1,500 special forces already deployed to Vladivosto
k. The unattributed image, now identified as being from a South Korean satellite, provides critical visual confirmation of these movements.
South Korea has been operating multiple SAR-equipped reconnaissance satellites, although images from military satellites are typically not included in public releases due to their classification as military secrets. The country has been vigilantly monitoring North Korea’s activities amid increasing speculation regarding the military collaboration between Moscow and Pyongyang.