North Korean soldiers who had been enlisted to fight for Vladimir Putin but deserted when they were on the front line may be deployed in assault operations against Ukrainian troops.
Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate has said that Russia is training more than 11,000 troops from North Korea for the war in Ukraine to be ready for combat operations starting next month in claims backed by South Korean intelligence.
The prospect that Pyongyang is involved in Putin’s full-scale invasion has sparked international alarm at the threat of escalation.
It was reported last week that 40 North Korean personnel had been left in the forest area of the Khomutovsky district of the Kursk region with neither food nor instructions for further plans. A group of 18 left their positions without permission to find their Russian commanders but were found and detained.
All 40 North Korean personnel have been moved to the Lgov district of the Kursk region for further involvement in assault operations, according to Ukrainian outlet Hromadske, which cited an unnamed Ukrainian intelligence official. Ukrainian outlet Babel also reported the claims.
“Russia may throw 18 North Korean soldiers into the ‘meat’ assault, who previously tried to escape from positions in the Kursk region, but were detained by the Russians,” posted eastern European news outlet Nexta.
“Meat assault” refers to what Ukraine dubs Russian operations in which undertrained personnel are sent in to storm the combat zone, resulting in very high casualty numbers.
Newsweek reached out to the Ukrainian and Russian defense ministries for comment.
North Korean soldiers welcome Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Pyongyang on October 18, 2023. Soldiers from the secretive state are reportedly fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
KIM WON JIN/Getty Images
British defense officials said that Russian forces had suffered a massive spike in casualties in September, which delivered the highest monthly average of dead and wounded soldiers since the start of the war.
The South Korean Defense Ministry said that North Korean soldiers had been issued with Russian military uniforms and Russian-made weapons and fake certification that they were residents of Russia’s Yakutia and Buryatia regions.
Amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula, Seoul summoned the Russian ambassador on Monday and has called for Pyongyang to immediately withdraw its soldiers from Russia, saying their presence violates the United Nations Charter and threatens South Korea’s security.
NATO and the United States have not confirmed that North Korean troops were fighting for Russia. However, the alliance chief, Mark Rutte, said Monday that such a deployment would significantly escalate the conflict.
When contacted for comment, the U.S. State Department referred Newsweek to comments by its spokesperson Matthew Miller. Miller told reporters last week that if true, “it would mark a significant increase in the relationship between those two countries” and “a new level of desperation by Russia.”
