Thousands of North Korean soldiers in Russia on way to war in Ukraine with fake IDs

New video evidence shows preparing to be sent to fight for against .

Despite no official announcement from Moscow, it now appears a is underway which may reach 12,000 soldiers including 1,500 special forces.

The latest film shows Kim Jong Un fighters being kitted with Russian military equipment - and they have been given fake ID cards showing them to be residents of Siberian regions Yakutia and Buryatia, according to South Korean intelligence.

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The footage is reportedly no more than 72 hours old and is from the Sergeevsky training ground in the Primorsky region of the Russian Far East, said Ukrainian Telegram channel Spravdi.

Earlier film reportedly showed soldiers being put through their paces at the same training facility.

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The U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee chairman - Republican Mike Turner - warned: “These [North Korean] troops movements, if true, are alarming and are an extreme escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.”

They “require an immediate response from the United States and our NATO allies to avoid a widening conflict”.

Ukrainian president has warned darkly that a North Korean deployment backing Russian troops was the “first step to a war”.

Reports suggest North Korea’s forces are undergoing training and preparation in Khabarovsk, Ussuriysk and Blagovishchensk, as well as at Sergeevsky, which is 90 miles from Vladivostok, ’s Pacific capital.

The South Korean National Intelligence Service said it can confirm the deployment of Kim’s fighters to Russia, releasing satellite images backing its case.

Russian naval ships were used to transport the initial 1,500 special services troops, between 8 and 13 October, it said. More are expected soon. Kim had personally inspected the special forces twice before they were sent to Russia, it added.

“Four landing ships and three escort ships belonging to the Russian Pacific Fleet completed the first transport of approximately 1,500 North Korean special forces from the areas near Chongjin, Hamhung, and Musudan (Attachment 1) to Vladivostok, Russia during the same period, and a second transport operation is scheduled to take place soon,” said the intelligence service.

“The North Korean soldiers were issued Russian military uniforms and Russian-made weapons, and were also issued fake ID cards of residents of the Yakutia and Buryatia regions of Siberia.

In facial appearance, natives of these regions appear similar to North Koreans, it is claimed.

“It appears that they disguised themselves as Russian soldiers to hide the fact that they were deployed to the battlefield.”

The deployment of troops is in addition to vast qualities of military equipment transferred to Russia - likely in exchange of nuclear know-how from Moscow.

Seoul says 13,000 containers have been moved on approximately 70 occasions since August of last year.

A National Intelligence Service official said,: “The suspicions raised by foreign media outlets regarding ‘direct military cooperation between Russia and North Korea’ have been officially confirmed.”

The source added: “We will continue to track and confirm movements in military cooperation between Russia and North Korea through close intelligence cooperation with allied countries.”

The Kremlin earlier this month dismissed the deployment of North Korean troops as a fake.

However, the Putin regime has not commented on the latest evidence.

Earlier there were reports that 18 North Koreans already fighting in the war had escaped from their positions and gone missing.