North Korea has sent more troops to Russia, South Korea says

Local media reports that the intelligence agency of South Korea has determined that North Korea sent more soldiers to Russia after the country’s front liners in Ukraine suffered significant casualties.

Following a month-long pause, Pyongyang redeployed troops to the front in Russia’s Kursk region, according to a statement from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) to South Korean media.

“It appears that there has been a deployment of additional troops, but their size is still being examined”, the NIS was quoted as saying by South Korea’s state-funded Yonhap News Agency.

Following an analysis last year that Pyongyang’s initial deployment to support Moscow’s invasion had sent about 11, 000 soldiers to Russia, Seoul’s intelligence assessment came to mind.

Due to their lack of combat experience and inability to communicate with their Russian superiors, according to defense analysts, the North Korean troops are likely to be easy targets for Ukrainian drone and artillery attacks.

Russian commanders on the ground in Ukraine have also reported that they have ordered Ukrainian commanders to kill themselves instead of be taken captive by using North Korean troops to launch attacks.

In January, the NIS estimated that 300 North Korean soldiers had been killed and 2, 700 others injured in battle.

4, 000 North Koreans were reported to have been killed or wounded, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine.

Since holding opulent back-to-back summits in 2023 and last June, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin have increased their military ties.