SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea recently provided Russia with additional artillery systems to support its war effort against Ukraine. North Korean troops South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Wednesday that soldiers deployed in Russia had begun fighting.

South Korea’s assessment followed Russia’s warning on Monday. US President Joe Biden’s decision Allowing Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia Long-range missiles supplied by the United States “adds fuel to the fire” fight. US officials said Biden’s decision was triggered almost entirely by North Korea’s entry into the war.

North Korea has exported 170 mm self-propelled guns and 240 mm multiple rocket launcher systems to Russia, the National Intelligence Service said in a closed-door briefing in parliament, according to lawmaker Lee Seong Kweun, who attended the meeting.

Lee told reporters that the NIS assessed that these weapons were a type of artillery that the Russian military did not use, so North Korea likely sent personnel to teach the Russians how to use and maintain them.

Last week, Russian Telegram channels and other social media posts posted photos showing North Korea’s “Koksan” 170mm self-propelled guns being transported by rail within Russia. Citing Ukrainian intelligence assessments, the Financial Times reported on Sunday that North Korea has sent nearly 50 domestically produced 170mm self-propelled howitzers and 20 240mm multiple-barreled rocket systems to Russia in recent weeks.

The artillery systems are the latest conventional weapons that North Korea is believed to have supplied to Russia; as the two countries are sharply expanding their military cooperation in the face of separate conflicts with the United States and its allies. Last month, NIS said North Korea had sent more than 13,000 containers, artillery, missiles and other supplies. Conventional weapons to Russia To replenish weapons stocks, which have been decreasing since August 2023.

About 11,000 North Korean troops moved into Russia’s Kursk region in late October, where Ukrainian troops seized some of its territory this year after training in Russia’s northeast, Lee said in his Wednesday briefing. He quoted the NIS as saying North Korean soldiers were assigned to Russia’s naval and air force units and some began fighting alongside the Russians on the front lines.

The United States, Ukraine and others have similar estimates of the size of North Korea’s troop deployment. They say North Korean troops arrived in Russia in October and some have been fighting in the Kursk region since then. Observers say North Korea’s entry into the nearly three-year war threatens to escalate the conflict.

Park Sunwon, another lawmaker who was present at the NIS meeting, made similar comments about the briefing. He said the spy agency could not provide an assessment of possible North Korean casualties.

Ukraine fired six US-made ATACMS missiles into Russia’s Bryansk region, Moscow said on Tuesday, marking the first time Kiev would use the weapon inside Russia. Ukraine’s General Staff did not confirm whether the weapon was used, but said its armed forces hit an ammunition depot in the Bryansk region, which borders Kursk and likely supplied supplies to Russian forces fighting there.

Ukrainian leaders since the first year of the war lobbied Western allies Allowing them to use advanced weapons to strike key targets inside Russia.

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