Satellite images show the transport of North Korean troops to Russia

Satellite images show the transport of North Korean troops to Russia

According to a new analysis of a US think tank that was shared exclusively with CNN, satellite images have revealed that hundreds of North Korean troops were probably transported to Russia by sea to fight against Ukraine in the war. At least two Russian naval ships are said to have taken North Korean soldiers to a military port in Dunai in the far east of Russia in October and November, as researchers from the James Martin Center for nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury of International Studies in California report.

confidentiality of troop movements

The shipping broadcasts were first found by the South Korean National Secret Service (NIS), which reported in a press release last year that some soldiers were transported via North Korean port facilities in Chongjin, Hamhthung and Musudan. However, the South Korean agency made only a blurred radar image.

"I don't think the Russians or the North Koreans want these transfers to be recorded on camera," Sam Lair, a research employee at the Center for uliferation, told CNN. "The element of confidentiality is remarkable." Now researchers have verified that at the same time, when the troop transfers were reported by the South Korean secret services, the identified Russian ships in the port of Dunai.

activities at the port of Dunai

In North Korea, soldiers probably climb these ships at night, which makes it difficult to record evidence of the transfers, according to the researchers. However, satellite images show activities in Dunai, "where it seems that the Russians were less careful". For example, a satellite picture of October 17 shows a crane that reaches for one of the Russian landing boats that researchers think for Nikolay Vilkov. A few days later, on October 20, the crane is withdrawn, and it looks like a soldier transfer has been successfully completed.

The researchers were able to identify the Russian "Ropucha" and "Alligator class" ships in the satellite images, as they match photos that were taken by the Japanese Ministry of Defense in March 2022 when the ships drove through Japanese waters. Each landing boat is expected to have the capacity of transporting several hundred soldiers, possibly up to 400.

dunai as a safe military location

lair explained that Dunai is a secure military facility that is significantly better suited for secret transfers than the large nearby port of Vladiwostok, in which civilians live. "This is an isolated place where you can carry out these transfers without the people noticing it to protect themselves ... (where) may not notice their own citizens and people in the intelligence group," said Lair.

North Korean troops have been stationed in Kursk since the end of October to ward off the Ukrainian push in the southern Russian border region. "The Russians seem to be very careful to limit the exposure of the North Korean soldiers by persuading them directly to military training facilities. The reason for the confidentiality around the North Koreans is unclear, but the transport of some of them would go to this effort," wrote Lair in his analysis. <

collaboration between North Korea and Russia

The port of Dunai was used earlier to transport freight between Russia and North Korea, since pjöngjang 2023 began to support the invasion in Ukraine , reported the researchers of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Satellite images from October show a cargo ship that was loaded in the port of Rajin in North Korea, and that the same ship anchor in Dunai in Russia two days later. A of October 2023 of the British Think Tanks The Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies (Rusi) indicated that "Russia has probably started to deliver North Korean ammunition to the" unobtrusive naval facility "in Dunai.

military skills in North Korea improve

"We deal a lot with North Korea in general, because of the North Korean nuclear weapons program, its conventional weapon program, its rocket programs ... We monitor the connection between North Korea and Russia since the beginning, sometimes because we think this relationship could go in both directions," said Lair. Alyona GetManchuk, director of the New Europe Center in Kiev, reported this week at a forum in South Korea that North Korea gains valuable combat experience through his participation in Ukraine. "It is not just about rocket deliveries, but also about testing their rockets under real conditions on the battlefield," said GetManchuk during the forum in the Goethe Institute in Seoul and adding that North Korea used this experience to modernize and make rockets more precisely.

Development of the North Korean floor troops

According to GetManchuk, the North Korean land forces also improve. "They came completely unprepared ... Now they learn very quickly and adapt their tactics to be effective in the" modern, highly developed war "," she added. Lair further explained that the relationship between Pyongyang and Moscow has been deepened since the beginning of the invasion : "To send his own soldiers into a different conflict."

There are signs that Russia and North Korea no longer use the sea route to transport troops, according to the Think Tank. Meanwhile, the South Korean secret service has reported that Russian military aircraft often fly between Vladiwostok and Pyongyang.

Brad Lendon from CNN contributed to this report.