The National Intelligence Service (NIS) of the Republic of Korea published satellite photos on Friday, October 18, which it said showed North Korean troops being trained and transported to fight for Russia in the war in Ukraine.The NIS said it had first observed Kim Jong-sik, a key figure in North Korea’s missile development, visiting a missile launch site near the Ukrainian border with Russia in August.Since then, the NIS said it had observed North Korean authorities “transporting special forces to Russian territory via a Russian naval transport ship”.The NIS also attached images from military bases in Russia, which it said showed North Korean soldiers training on site.Storyful has not independently confirmed these claims.“According to the National Intelligence Service, four landing ships and three escort ships belonging to the Russian Pacific Fleet completed the first transport of approximately 1,500 North Korean special forces from the areas near Chongjin, Hamhung, and Musudan (Attachment 1) to Vladivostok, Russia during the same period, and a second transport operation is scheduled to take place soon,” the NIS said.The transported soldiers were receiving Russian military uniforms and fake ID cards from the Yakutia and Buryatia regions of Siberia, the NIS said.It also added that, according to its own intelligence, North Korea had transferred weapons to Russia approximately 70 times since August 2023.On October 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a press conference in Brussels that North Korean soldiers were already on the ground in “the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine” and that, according to their intelligence, Russia intended to train 10,000 soldiers from various branches of the North Korean military to fight in Ukraine. Credit: National Intelligence Service of the Republic of Korea via Storyful