Ukraine's Center for Strategic Information and Communications Security released a video of North Korean soldiers training in Russia following comments by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that about 10,000 North Korean soldiers are being trained to fight alongside the Russian army.
Newsweek said the video, which was posted by Ukrainian media on October 18, shows North Korean soldiers at the Sergeevsky training ground in Russia’s Far Eastern Primorye region. In the video, soldiers line up to retrieve equipment. Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Ministry of National Defense for comment on the video.
The head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, Kyrylo Budanov, said that the first group of 2,600 North Korean soldiers would be deployed to Russia's Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a counter-invasion in August. Ukraine also said that about 11,000 North Korean soldiers would be "combat-ready" in Ukraine next month.
On October 18, the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported that Pyongyang had sent 1,500 soldiers from Chongjin, Hamhung and Musudan in North Korea to Vladivostok, Russia from October 8 to October 13. A second batch of North Korean soldiers is expected to be deployed to Russia soon.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service also posted satellite images of a Russian ship near North Korea and photos of servicemen gathered at Russian military facilities in Ussuryisk and Khabarovsk.
The Washington DC-based Institute for the Study of War said Ukrainian and Russian sources had corroborated intelligence reports and videos released by Ukraine that appeared to be consistent with reports of North Korean troop deployments to Russia but did not independently confirm the claims.
"This is a significant escalation of Russia's war" in Ukraine, said retired Australian Army General Mick Ryan.
The involvement of North Korean troops could be a serious escalation of the war in Ukraine, the French and Ukrainian foreign ministers said at a joint press conference in Kiev on October 19, Reuters reported.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot stressed: "This is serious and pushes the conflict into a new phase, a further escalation." Meanwhile, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that the risk of escalation from the involvement of the North Korean military was "very high". "There is a great risk that this action will go beyond the current scale and borders," he said.
