North Korea is rumoured to be sending tens of thousands more troops to Russia in support of its war in Ukraine, marking a deepening of the two countries’ defence ties and a major escalation of Pyongyang’s involvement in the conflict, if confirmed.
Late on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed that preparations had been under way in Russia’s Voronezh region to receive another 30,000 North Korean troops since last month.
He also claimed Pyongyang was planning to send additional missile launchers to support Moscow’s military campaign.
“This is quite a plausible claim,” said Oh Gyeong-seob, a North Korea-focused political scientist and senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification. “It would be a win-win deal for both countries.”
It would be a win-win deal for both countries
A steady stream of cheap frontline troops from North Korea offered Russia “a cost-effective way to recruit soldiers”, Oh said, “while Pyongyang receives money and military technology in return”.
An estimated 14,000 North Korean soldiers and thousands of additional military engineers were first sent to Russia’s Kursk region in late 2024 in support of Moscow’s war effort. Pyongyang confirmed the deployment in April last year.
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