Around 12,000 North Korean special forces soldiers are currently in Russia adjusting and are likely to move to the front lines soon.

North Korea’s decision to send thousands of soldiers to Ukraine’s front lines solidifies Pyongyang’s controversial military alliance with Moscow.

Seoul’s spy agency reported on Friday that thousands more troops are prepared to depart soon and head directly to the front lines in Ukraine.

This demonstrates that the military agreement signed by North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, which included a mutual defense treaty, was not merely for show.

“This sets up a framework where Russia’s involvement or military assistance will automatically occur if North Korea is attacked or faces a crisis,” Hong Min, an expert analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, informed AFP.

The fact that North Korean soldiers will fight alongside Russia in Ukraine proves how “solid” the Putin-Kim agreement truly is, Hong stated.

North and South Korea remain technically at war since the 1950 to 1953 conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace agreement.

Yet, while Kim has built up a nuclear arsenal, Seoul does not have any nuclear weapons of its own.

The South is protected by the so-called US nuclear umbrella, and Seoul, along with Washington, regularly carries out extensive joint military exercises, which provoke Pyongyang.

By sending soldiers to Russia, Kim might be hoping to create a more unified North Korean and Russian military alliance, similar to the US-South Korea alliance, potentially “leading to a significant shift” in the Koreas’ security dynamics, Hong said.