It now appears that as many as 10,900 to 12,000 North Korean soldiers have been dispatched to help Russia in its war against Ukraine. A revelation by the South Korean intelligence agency-the National Intelligence Service, or NIS-it has given a new twist to the ongoing conflict and marked an unprecedented deepening of military relations between Moscow and Pyongyang.
North Korean troops have been placed within various Russia’s airborne units and its marine corps, deployed in the vicinity of the conflict zones, including the Kursk region. Such troops would have special training in modern tactics and drone countermeasures; hence, they are an important structural inclusion in Russia’s armed potential. According to reports, they are involved for the first time in combat against Ukrainian forces.
In reality, however, North Korea’s involvement goes well beyond manpower: the country has transferred self-propelled howitzers and multiple rocket launchers to Russia to beef up its artillery. This military assistance is being spearheaded by Colonel General Kim Yong Bok, a high-ranking official overseeing the North Korean troops in Russia.
But the first reported engagements between Ukrainian forces and North Korean troops have taken place near Kursk. Details about casualties and possible surrenders remain murky, with reports sometimes conflicting. The NIS continues to verify these claims, underlining very much how little is known about the role of North Korean forces in direct combat.
This military alliance has been possible through high-level diplomatic exchanges. Last week, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui met, in an unusual protocol meeting, with Russian President Vladimir Putin during her latest visit to Moscow. That meeting is believed to have discussed core military strategies and likely future cooperation between them. Speculation is also growing that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may visit Russia in a summit with Putin to further set in concrete their alliance.
This deployment of North Korean troops has received sharp responses from the international community. The strict warning from the United States went so far as to say that if North Korean forces engage in combat against Ukraine, they will be considered legitimate military targets. NATO and Western allies have strongly condemned such an alliance as a violation of international norms and a dangerous further escalation of the conflict.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed deep concern that it is a partnership that could give birth to more complications on the battlefield. There are reports of the possibility that North Korea might surge its troop deployment to as many as 100,000 in case the war drags on with rising casualties, thus raising a full-blown alert about the probable flare-up of the conflict.
The new front that familiarity between Russia and North Korea opens on the Ukraine war underlines larger geopolitical shifts. To Pyongyang, the relationship has underlined its isolation from global norms while continuing to lock it into the agenda set by Moscow. To Russia, the addition of North Korean troops and weaponry brings reinforcements much needed as the conflict drags on.
North Korean involvement within this evolving war underlines the expanding alliances now reconfiguring this battlefield. The complication of military dynamics is only the tip of the iceberg where critical questions of wider implications for global safety and diplomacy are concerned.
