50,000 North Korean Troops to Reinforce Russian Front Lines

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said on Wednesday (13/8) that Russia and North Korea are considering a plan to deploy additional North Korean troops to three western Russian regions bordering Ukraine, enabling the redeployment of Russian units to the front line.

The deployment of North Korean troops would be increased to 50,000 soldiers by the end of November to help Russia seize the eastern Ukrainian Donbas region, which includes Luhansk and Donetsk, by the end of the year, according to a provisional Russian military plan obtained by Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence.

Ukraine believes that more than 42,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded in July, and Moscow is seeking reinforcements from North Korea to continue the war.

Russia and North Korea signed a strategic partnership pact in 2024 to establish mutual support in times of emergency. More than 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to western Russia and have engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces to date.

Although most are deployed in Kursk, the provisional plan also appears to allow North Korean units to take over a significant portion of duties in Bryansk and Belgorod. A Ukrainian intelligence official said Russia and North Korea are expected to give final approval for the plan at the level of their leaders.

The agency estimates that approximately 9,500 North Korean ground troops are currently in Russia. Separately, North Korea recently began deploying around 90 missile troops to the Voronezh region in southern Russia.

Pyongyang has also provided an additional 40 ballistic missiles to Russia, which may have been used in late July near Kryvyi Rih in Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, and in early August in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

In a video statement released on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that if North Korea gains combat experience, it would mean an “increased danger” for Japan and South Korea.