Close ally of Kim Jong-un is leader of North Korean troops in Russia, says Ukraine

Special forces general may have bigger role than just leading troops on the ground

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un has sent a trusted special forces general to Russia to lead Pyongyang’s troops in Ukraine, Kyiv’s intelligence has said.
General Kim Yong Bok is the deputy head of the North Korean army and a veteran of the country’s Storm Corps special forces.
He is often photographed standing next to Kim Jong-un, smiling sycophantically and taking notes.
In a statement to the UN on Wednesday, Ukraine named Gen Kim as the most senior North Korean officer sent to Russia ahead of its expected entry into the war.
It also called the military alliance between Moscow and Pyongyang a “threat to Europe, the Korean peninsula, its neighbours and beyond”.
A career soldier, Gen Kim is also a member of the Workers’ Party of Korea Central Committee that rubber-stamps orders from Kim Jong-un.
Michael Madden, a non-resident fellow of the US-based Stimson Center analyst think tank, described Gen Kim as Kim Jong-un’s “top adviser on light infantry and the special operation forces”.
He also said it was telling that Gen Kim had attended seven of the dictator’s public engagements this year and two flood reconstruction projects.
“By publicising his presence at flood reconstruction work, to which he has no seeming connection, Pyongyang was telecasting that their special operations forces commander has direct, unfettered access to Kim Jong-un,” he said.
The Ukrainian statement to the UN described Gen Kim as the “commander-in-chief of North Korean forces in Russia”, which are estimated to be at least five infantry formations of 2,000–3,000 soldiers each.
But Mr Madden said that the North Korean leader may also have an alternative motive for sending Gen Kim to Russia.
He said that the North Korean dictator may have ordered him to supervise the hermit kingdom’s entire military deployment into the war rather than command troops on the ground.
“He is also probably coordinating with Russian counterparts and creating a reporting framework between deployed personnel and Pyongyang,” Mr Madden said.
News of Gen Kim’s deployment to Russia comes as Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s foreign minister, visits Moscow for talks with Sergei Lavrov, her Russian counterpart.
The Kremlin has not released any details of the talks but Russian news agencies have said that North Korea expects IT and other technical support from Russia in exchange for the thousands of artillery shells, missiles and now soldiers it has given to Russia over the past year.
This week, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Germany said that North Korea has supplied Russia with weapons worth an estimated £4.2billion.
It is unclear what technical support the Kremlin has given North Korea so far, but Kim Jong-un toured a Russian spaceport last year, suggesting that he wanted the Kremlin’s help to launch spy satellites.
North Korea also has aspirations to build a nuclear missile and may be looking to tap into the Kremlin’s expertise.
On Thursday, it test-fired an intercontinental missile which flew for 86 minutes, the longest it has ever managed.
Russia’s upper house of parliament is expected to shortly rubber-stamp a “mutual military assistance” deal agreed between its president Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un earlier this year that will green light North Korea’s entry into the war.
The US has warned Moscow and Pyongyang against the plan, saying that North Korean soldiers would be returned in “body bags”.