North Korea sent 3,000 more troops to Russia, according to South's assessment

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North Korea sent 3,000 more troops to Russia, according to South's assessment

2025-03-27 20:47 Last Updated At：20:51

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea sent around 3,000 additional troops to Russia in January and February in continued support for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, South Korea’s military said Thursday in its latest assessment.

The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea has also been sending more missiles, artillery equipment and ammunition to help Russia and that North Korea could increase its weapons supplies further depending on the war situation. Russia and Ukraine recently agreed on a limited ceasefire, though both sides have accused each other of violations.

The military equipment North Korea has sent to Russia includes a “considerable amount” of short-range ballistic missiles, 170 millimeter self-propelled howitzers and around 220 units of 240 millimeter multiple rocket launchers.

North Korea has sent approximately 11,000 military personnel to fight in the war against Ukraine in its first involvement in a large-scale conflict since the 1950-53 Korean War, and the Joint Chiefs assessed that around 4,000 of them have been killed or wounded.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service previously attributed the high North Korean casualties to the troops’ likely struggles in adapting to drones and other elements of modern warfare. North Korean troops are further disadvantaged by the crude tactics of their Russian commanders, who have sent them into assault campaigns without providing rear-fire support, the spy agency told lawmakers in January.

Still, Ukrainian military and intelligence officials have assessed that the North Koreans are gaining crucial battlefield experience and have been key to Russia’s strategy of overwhelming Ukraine by throwing large numbers of soldiers into the battle for Kursk.

The South Korean military report came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expressed his unwavering support for Russia’s war in Ukraine during a meeting with a top Russian security official, Sergei Shoigu, last week in Pyongyang. State media reports said Kim and Shoigu reaffirmed their commitment to uphold a major mutual defense treaty agreed upon last year. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told Russian media on Thursday that the governments were discussing a potential visit by Kim to Moscow but did not specify when it might take place.

“We always talk to everyone about exchanging visits. We are always preparing,” he told RIA Novosti.

Kim’s military support of Russia has raised concerns that he may receive Russian technology transfers in return, further strengthening the threat posed by his nuclear-armed military. Experts say aircraft and drones are among the potential areas where North Korea might seek to acquire Russian technology and know-how.

North Korean state media said Thursday that Kim observed tests of newly developed reconnaissance and attack drones this week and called for their increased production. Kim in recent months has been emphasizing the development of drones, and the tests were the latest display of his country’s growing military capabilities.

Photos released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency showed Kim observing a large reconnaissance drone resembling the U.S.-made RQ-4B Global Hawk, first unveiled during a 2023 military exhibition. Other photos showed Kim boarding what appeared to be an airborne early-warning aircraft, similar in appearance to the Boeing E-7 Wedgetail. Other images showed exploding drones crashing into military vehicles used as targets.

The agency said the test demonstrated the reconnaissance drone’s ability to track multiple targets and monitor troop movements on land and at sea, potentially enhancing North Korea’s intelligence-gathering operations and ability to neutralize enemy threats. The report said the new exploding drones are designed for various attack missions and feature unspecified artificial intelligence capabilities.

Kim expressed satisfaction with the drones’ performance and approved plans to expand production, emphasizing that drones and AI should be “top” priorities in efforts to advance his armed forces and adapt them to modern warfare, KCNA said. The agency said the tests took place as Kim visited a drone technology complex and an electronic warfare research group on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Kim previously inspected other demonstrations of drones that explode on impact in November and August last year.

When asked about the possibly early-warning aircraft, which North Korean state media unveiled for the first time, Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the North likely modified an existing plane to create an early-warning aircraft and may have used certain components from Russia. He said the aircraft’s operational capabilities have yet to be proven.

“As you can see, it looks quite cumbersome and we assess that it’s likely vulnerable to interception,” Lee said during a briefing, without elaborating further on the assessment. __ AP writer Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

Quake death toll in Myanmar tops 1,600 and expected to rise as rescue work slowed by damage and war

2025-03-30 14:43 Last Updated At：14:51

BANGKOK (AP) — Emergency rescue teams on Sunday began trickling into the area of Myanmar hardest hit by a massive earthquake that killed more than 1,600 people, their efforts hindered by buckled roads, downed bridges, spotty communications and the challenges of operating in a country in the midst of a civil war.

The 7.7 magnitude quake hit midday Friday with an epicenter near Mandalay, Myanmar's second-largest city, bringing down scores of buildings and damaging other infrastructure like the city's airport.

Many of Mandalay's 1.5 million people spent the night sleeping on the streets, either left homeless by the quake, which also shook neighboring Thailand and killed at least 17 people there, or worried that the continuing aftershocks might cause structures left unstable to collapse.

So far 1,644 people have been reported killed in Myanmar and 3,408 missing, but many areas have not yet been reached, and many rescue efforts so far have been undertaken by people working by hand to try and clear rubble, said Cara Bragg, the Yangon-based manager of Catholic Relief Services in Myanmar.

“It's mainly been local volunteers, local people who are just trying to find their loved ones,” Bragg said after bring briefed by her colleague in Mandalay.

“I've also seen reports that now some countries are sending search and rescue teams up to Mandalay to support the efforts, but hospitals are really struggling to cope with the influx of injured people, there's a shortage of medical supplies, and people are struggling to find food and clean water,” Bragg added.

The organization was sending a team by road on Sunday to assess peoples' most pressing needs so that it could target its own response.

With the Mandalay airport damaged and the control tower toppled in the capital Naypitaw's airport, all commercial flights into the cities have been shut down.

Still, two Indian C-17 military transport aircraft were able to land late Saturday at Naypitaw with a field hospital unit and some 120 personnel who were then to travel north to Mandalay to establish a 60-bed emergency treatment center, according to the country's Foreign Ministry. Other Indian supplies were flown into Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, which has been the hub of other foreign relief efforts.

On Sunday, a convoy of 17 Chinese cargo trucks carrying critical shelter and medical supplies was expected to reach Mandalay, after making the arduous journey by road from Yangon.

The 650-kilometer (400-mile) journey has been taking 14 hours or longer, with clogged roads and traffic diverted from the main highway to skirt damage from the earthquake.

At the same time, the window of opportunity to find anyone alive is rapidly closing. Most rescues occur within the first 24 hours after a disaster, and then survival chances drop as each day passes.

An initial report on earthquake relief efforts issued Saturday by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs noted the severe damage or destruction of many health facilities, and warned that a “severe shortage of medical supplies is hampering response efforts, including trauma kits, blood bags, anesthetics, assistive devices, essential medicines, and tents for health workers.”

China said it has sent more than 135 rescue personnel and experts along with supplies like medical kits and generators, and pledged around $13.8 million in emergency aid. Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said it had flown in 120 rescuers and supplies to Yangon, and the country’s Health Ministry said Moscow had sent a medical team to Myanmar.

In neighboring Thailand, the quake rocked much of the county, bringing down a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok, some 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) away from the epicenter.

So far, 10 people have been found dead at the construction site near the popular Chatuchak market, where 83 people are unaccounted for and the latest body was recovered from the rubble early Sunday morning. A total of 17 people have been reported killed by the quake in Thailand so far.

In Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, rescue efforts so far are focused on Mandalay and Naypyitaw, which are thought to have been the hardest hit, but many other areas were also impacted and little is known so far about the damage there.

“We're hearing reports of hundreds of people trapped in different areas,” said Bragg. “Right now we're at 1,600 (known fatalities) and we don't have a lot of data coming out but you've got to assume it will be increasing in the thousands based on what the impacts are. This is just anecdotal information at this point.”

Beyond the earthquake damage, rescue efforts are complicated by the bloody civil war roiling much of the country, including in quake-affected areas. In 2001, the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has since turned into significant armed resistance.

Government forces have lost control of much of Myanmar, and many places are dangerous or impossible for aid groups to reach. More than 3 million people have been displaced by the fighting and nearly 20 million are in need, according to the United Nations.

The government military has been fighting long-established militias and newly formed pro-democracy People's Defense Forces, and has heavily restricted much-needed aid efforts to the large population already displaced by war even before the earthquake.

On Saturday, Myanmar’s opposition shadow National Unity Government, to which the PDF militias are loyal, announced a unilateral partial ceasefire to facilitate earthquake relief efforts.

The military did not immediately comment on the announcement and it continued airstrikes even after the earthquake.

The Three Brotherhood Alliance, a group of three of Myanmar's most powerful and well-armed militias that launched a combined offensive in October 2023 that broke a strategic stalemate with the military regime, didn't mention a ceasefire in a statement Saturday, but said it was ready to help.

“We will promptly provide assistance to those affected by the earthquake to the best of our ability, with a spirit of humanity, unit and brotherhood,” the group said.

Jintamas Saksornchai contributed to this story.