**[Anchor]**
The National Intelligence Service has announced that North Korea appears to have deployed additional troops to support Russia.
The exact scale is still being determined, but initial estimates suggest more than a thousand troops.
This is Lee Jong-won reporting.
**[Reporter]**
The National Intelligence Service has identified signs that North Korean troops have been additionally deployed to support Russia, which is at war with Ukraine.
The exact number of additional deployed troops is still being confirmed, but it is believed that the scale is at least over a thousand.
For a while, North Korean troops had disappeared from the front lines, but it has been confirmed that they were redeployed to the Kursk front from the first week of February after about a month of lull.
This aligns with the statements made by Ukrainian President Zelensky.
**[Volodymyr Zelensky / Ukrainian President (Early February)]: North Korean troops have participated in this attack again. It has been a long time since we eliminated 4,000 of their soldiers. Until now, there were no North Korean troops present.**
In October last year, North Korea deployed over 10,000 troops to Russia.
Most were deployed to the western Kursk front after undergoing training, but casualties are reported to have reached around 4,000 so far.
Despite the heavy losses, further deployment of North Korean troops was pushed forward as the ‘Trump-style end-of-war roadmap’ gained momentum, with North Korea seemingly trying to leverage the urgent need for Russia to recapture Kursk for greater reciprocal benefits.
**[Lee Sung-jun / Joint Chiefs of Staff Public Affairs Officer]: Our military is closely monitoring the movements of the North Korean troops. We had previously indicated the possibility of their deployment.**
Amid this, it is reported that despite the significant number of North Korean casualties, there have been no signs of bodies being transported back to North Korea.
The barriers seem to be internal conditions and costs preventing North Korea from officially acknowledging the deployment of troops.
This is Lee Jong-won from YTN.
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