South Korea’s spy agency said Wednesday that North Korea appears to have sent additional troops to Russia after its soldiers deployed on the Russia-Ukraine front suffered heavy losses. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a brief statement that it was trying to determine how many troops North Korea has deployed in Russia.
NIS estimates that North Korean troops were redeployed to the front lines in Russia’s Kursk region in the first week of February, following reports of a temporary withdrawal from the area. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed a new Ukrainian offensive in Kursk in a speech on February 7 and said North Korean forces were fighting there alongside Russian forces.
According to American, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence officials, North Korea is supplying Russia with large quantities of conventional weapons and last fall it sent an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia.
North Korean soldiers are highly disciplined and well-trained, but observers say their lack of combat experience and unfamiliarity with the terrain have made them easy targets for drone and artillery attacks in the Russia-Ukraine war zone.
In January, the NIS reported that about 300 North Korean soldiers had been killed and another 2,700 wounded. Zelensky had previously said the number of people killed or injured in North Korea was 4,000, but US estimates put the number at around 1,200 fewer.
Earlier on Wednesday, South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, citing an anonymous source, reported that an additional 1,000 to 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been deployed to Kursk from January to February.
South Korea, the United States and their allies are concerned that Russia could reward North Korea with high-tech weapons technology that could accelerate its nuclear weapons program. North Korea is also expected to receive financial and other assistance from Russia. In talks in Saudi Arabia last week, Russia and the United States agreed to begin working towards ending the war and improving their diplomatic and economic relations.
Ukrainian officials were not present at the talks, marking an extraordinary shift in US foreign policy under President Donald Trump and a clear departure from US-led efforts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine. According to observers, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may send more troops to Russia to secure more Russian aid before the war ends.
