South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff(JCS) said North Korea appears to have dispatched an additional three-thousand troops to Russia early this year. 

The JCS said Thursday that it believes the North sent at least three thousand soldiers to Russia in January and February and continues to supply missiles, ammunition and artillery equipment. 

It said North Korea suffered four-thousand casualties among the eleven-thousand troops it previously dispatched to Russia.

The JCS added that the North has supplied a considerable number of short-range ballistic missiles and around 220 170-millimeter self-propelled howitzers and 240-millimeter rocket launchers.

It also said North Korea recently suffered multiple casualties from a land mine explosion north of the Military Demarcation Line in the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone while reinforcing fences in the area.