North Korea provides Russia with special operations forces - military expert

He said this on Espreso TV.

"We are talking about 12,000 DPRK servicemen who are on the territory of the Russian Federation directly and are stationed in military units. They are apparently undergoing additional training, which will continue in some units until November 1. That is, it is quite shortened, because the transfer of troops from the DPRK to the Russian Federation began on October 8. That is, everything is happening quite quickly. South Korean intelligence has published a detailed report showing how this happened, how they were transported directly on large landing ships, how they were covered by frigates there. An-124 Ruslan planes are being actively used, and this is the first time they have landed in the DPRK since 1990," he said.

According to Oleh Katkov, this is a rather threatening situation.

"That is, we are talking about the fact that Pyongyang has indeed started, it is called 'cannon fodder trade', there is no other explanation. There is a redeployment of forces, 12,000, if we take into account the personnel, two full-fledged brigades, not a battalion, as someone wrote, we are talking about such things. And this is a rather threatening situation, because we need to understand another aspect. Again, according to intelligence, we are not talking about ordinary soldiers, we are talking about representatives of the so-called special operations forces that the DPRK has. We can debate how well they are trained or compare them with other colleagues, but of course, the DPRK will be charged. The question here is the number, because we need to understand the main parameter - only the special operations forces, which include airborne units and reconnaissance units, according to various estimates, the DPRK has data from 80,000 to 200,000. At the same time, the total size of the DPRK's armed forces is 1.3 million people," the expert noted.

Military cooperation between Russia and North Korea

On October 4, the Kyiv Post reported that 20 soldiers were killed in a missile strike on occupied Donetsk, including six North Korean military personnel advising the Russian army.

The South Korean Defense Minister warned on October 8 that North Korea may deploy troops to Ukraine in support of Russia.

At an October 17 press conference in Brussels, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed Russia's plan to train 10,000 North Korean soldiers for combat in Ukraine.

Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, later reported that 11,000 North Korean infantrymen are training in eastern Russia, preparing for deployment to Ukraine. He added that the first unit of 2,600 soldiers is en route to Kursk, where Ukraine has established a stronghold.

Ukraine has since shared intelligence with NATO about North Korea’s military involvement and requested data from alliance members.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that the participation of the North Korean military in the war against Ukraine on the side of Russia would mean a “significant escalation.” 

Later, it was reported that South Korea was considering providing Ukraine with military and intelligence assistance in response to North Korea's sending its military to fight on the side of Russia.