According to some reports, 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia to support Moscow’s war effort.
North Korea supplies Russia not only with weapons but also with people, including those employed in Russian factories, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who urged Ukraine’s partners to increase their support.
And with these reports of North Korean troops on the ground, in effect, Pyongyang entered the war against Ukraine.
“In the coalition of criminals alongside Putin, North Korea is already involved, in particular the Kim family, which enslaves more than 20 million people in North Korea” Zelensky said while addressing Parliament in Kyiv on Wednesday.
“Our intelligence services observed not only the transfer of weapons from North Korea to Russia, but also the transfer of individuals. These people are workers sent to Russian factories to replace those killed in the war, as well as personnel for the Russian army.”
And it’s not just Pyongyang, there’s also Tehran, according to Zelensky.
“Everyone sees his regime’s support for Putin.”
Why would Russia need North Korean soldiers, and where?
Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent, citing Western sources, reported that North Korea had sent 10,000 troops to Russia to support its war efforts against Ukraine.
Additionally, Russia’s 11th Airborne Brigade is forming a 3,000-person “battalion” made up of North Korean citizens, according to Ukrainian media Suspilne and Ligawho cite anonymous military intelligence sources.
Where could they be deployed?
Ukrainian intelligence sources estimated that this “battalion” would likely participate in ongoing Russian defensive operations in the Kursk region.
Earlier, the Ukrainian partisan movement claimed to have identified the presence of North Korean military personnel in training areas located near Mariupol.
Euronews was unable to independently verify these claims.
The ISW think tank(Institute for the Study of War) based in the United States, claims to have recently observed reports that a small contingent of North Korean personnel were operating near the occupied city of Donetsk.
According to the ISW, the Kremlin is likely taking advantage of the strategic partnership agreement agreement between Russia and North Korea concluded in June, in part to compensate for Russia’s needs for force generation and border security.
This could therefore contribute to strengthening Vladimir Putin’s commitment, analysis, the ISW for whom “The Russian president appears more inclined to absorb North Korean personnel into the Russian military and resort to other irregular force generation efforts than to call for a broader mobilization among the population, to cope with the combat situation“.
Additional sources • ISW
