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South Korea should be wary of intelligence manipulation for political reasons or hasty retaliatory action against the North for its alleged involvement in the Ukraine war, critics warn, with Washington yet to confirm if Pyongyang had deployed troops to join their Russian counterparts.
The comments come as Seoul reportedly considered sending a team of intelligence personnel to Ukraine. A top security official has also said South Korea might supply Ukraine with lethal weapons in response to any war collaboration between Moscow and Pyongyang.
South Korea’s concerns centre on reports that more than 10,000 North Korean elite special forces are being prepared to be deployed to Russia to support its war efforts.
US State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said on Tuesday that his side was still verifying such reports.
“The United States has its own processes in place and our own assessments that we need to make before we can publicly say that we are seeing anything as it relates to a particular policy area,” Patel said.
He also said any deployment of North Korean troops to Russia – if confirmed – would be “incredibly dangerous”.