North Korea sends up to 30,000 soldiers to support Russia
North Korea sends up to 30,000 soldiers to support Russia
kyjiw, CNN - North Korea plans to triple the number of his soldiers who fight for Russia on the front line with Ukraine. According to an assessment of Ukrainian authorities, between 25,000 and 30,000 additional soldiers are to be sent to support Moscow.
preparation for the use
The new troops could arrive in Russia in the coming months, as the assessment that can be viewed by CNN shows. This would be added to the 11,000 soldiers who were sent in November who contributed to warding off the Ukrainian push into the Kursk region. According to the western authorities, around 4,000 of these North Korean soldiers were injured or killed during the mission, but the cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow has intensified.
integration into Russian armed forces
The Ukrainian assessment states that the Russian Ministry of Defense is able to provide “required equipment, weapons and ammunition” in order to achieve “closer integration into the Russian combat units”. The document emphasizes that "a great probability" is that the North Korean troops in the areas of Ukraine occupied by Russia will be involved in combat acts in order to strengthen the Russian forces, especially during large -scale offensive operations.
logistical preparations
The assessment also shows indications that Russian military aircraft are converted to transport personnel, which reflects the enormous task of moving tens of thousands of foreign troops through the Siberian region of Russia, which shares a border with North Korea in the extreme southwest. Possible preparations for the new missions were recorded by satellite images that show a ship bound to a last wave of operations in a Russian port and cargo aircraft at Sunan Airport.
status of the North Korean troops
North Korea initially sent 11,000 soldiers to Russia in autumn 2024. Russia's President Vladimir Putin only publicly confirmed the mission at the end of April. In October, North Korean soldiers were shown on how to get equipment for use at the front at the Sergeevka military base in Primorskij Kraj. A month later, a Ropucha-Class Russian ship in the port near Nakhodka, that could transport up to 400 soldiers.
movements of troops and airplanes
The flight patterns indicate that there may also be further troop movements. The Open Source Center delivered CNN satellite images from Sunan Airport in North Korea, which showed aircraft on June 4, which may be IL76 freight aircraft and taxi-ten-the same type of aircraft used in the previous year's operations. While the pictures do not provide precise information about the purposes of the ships and aircraft, the movement could indicate a pattern that matches the observations of analysts last year.
reactions of the analysts and experts
Jenny Town, Senior Fellow and director of the Korea program at the Stimson Center, explained that the Ukrainian estimate of up to 30,000 soldiers appears "high ... but they could be quite realistic with this number. However, they are not elite soldiers. Kim Jong Un said that it is completely behind Russia, so it depends on what Russia has requested.
The Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov recently expressed that Kyiv suspected a possible further posting of North Korean troops, warned that Kim Jong and would take the risk of endangering his own government by expressing so many elite troops to the high loss on the front.
outlook on the conflict
On Friday, the Supreme Military Head of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russia collapses 110,000 soldiers near the front-close hotspot town Pokrovsk in order to prepare for a possible offensive for the strategically important metropolitan center. Sergei Schoigu, a close consultant Putin, traveled to Pyongyang on June 17 - a trip that took place on Putin's instruction and his second within two weeks, reports the state -run news agency TASS. During the visit, Schoigu announced that 1,000 North Korean pioneers and 5,000 military construction workers send them to Russia to clear mines and "restore the infrastructure destroyed by the occupiers" in the Kursk region.
summary of the latest developments
The South Korean secret service reported that North Korea had started to select personnel for mission abroad, which could possibly be done in July or August. Reports from Russian media also indicate more intensive cooperation, while a video contribution by a Russian television presenter and politician on Telegram presented intensive preparations and the long -term accommodation of a North Korean unit. The data collected clearly indicates that the North Korean troops are increasingly being integrated into the Russian armed forces and that the potential for further escalation in the conflict remains high.