Seoul, Oct 22 (IANS): A pro-Russia Telegram account has posted a photo showing the Russian and North Korean flags side by side on a Ukrainian battlefield, indicating that North Korea has likely sent troops to support Russia in its prolonged war with Ukraine.

The image, shared by a blogger named @rvvoenkor_bot on Monday, showed the two flags raised together over a mine in Pokrovsk, one of the strongholds on Ukraine's eastern front, Yonhap news agency reported.

The blogger said that the North Korean flag has recently been raised on a hill at the mine near the city, which is one of the suspected locations where North Korean soldiers are believed to be stationed.

On Friday, South Korea's National Intelligence Service announced that North Korea had decided to send approximately 12,000 special forces to support Russia in its prolonged war with Ukraine, with about 1,500 already deployed to Russia's Far East.

The deployment marks the first time North Korea has sent ground troops on such a large scale, though it has previously dispatched smaller groups of soldiers overseas to earn foreign currency.

So far, North Korea's state media has not made any official statements regarding its troop deployment to Russia.

A North Korean envoy to the United Nations on Monday dismissed the accusations from South Korea and Ukraine that it is sending soldiers to fight alongside Russia in the war in Ukraine as "groundless rumours," arguing its relations with Moscow are "legitimate and cooperative."

On Monday, Russian Ambassador to South Korea Georgy Zinoviev told First Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun that the cooperation with North Korea is "not directed against South Korea's security interests" and claimed that the cooperation is "carried out within the framework of international law," the Russian Embassy in Seoul said in a Facebook post.

A South Korean unification ministry official said North Korea has never acknowledged the deployment of its soldiers, as it would be considered an illegal act.

"When the North engages in illegal activities, it does not explicitly acknowledge them," the official said on condition of anonymity, citing the 2010 sinking of the Cheonan warship that killed 46 South Korean sailors.

A team of multinational investigators concluded in 2010 that a North Korean torpedo was responsible for the sinking. However, the North still adamantly denies its involvement.