Seoul Says N. Korea Has Given Russia 200 Long-Range Artillery Pieces

North Korea has provided 200 pieces of long-range artillery to Russia, a South Korean defense ministry official told AFP on Tuesday.

Pyongyang has given Moscow "some 11,000 troops, missiles, 200 pieces of long-range artillery, and a substantial amount of ammunition," the official said.

North Korea could "additionally supply troops, weapons, and ammunition going forward," the official added.

Seoul, Kyiv, and Washington have all said that North Korea dispatched more than 10,000 troops last year to Russia to aid the Kremlin in its war against Ukraine.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have confirmed the deployment.

But the two countries signed an agreement, including a mutual defense clause, when Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to the nuclear-armed North last year.

This month, South Korea's spy agency told AFP that North Korean soldiers previously fighting alongside Russia's army on the Kursk frontline appear not to have been engaged in combat since mid-January.