Are North Korean troops fighting for Russia against Ukraine?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a speech to parliament on Wednesday that North Korea was a de facto participant in the war in Ukraine, siding with Russia. He said that Ukrainian intelligence had found that Pyongyang was transferring not only weapons, but also soldiers to Moscow.
The deepening military ties between Russia and North Korea have earned condemnation from the United States, South Korea and Japan. The three countries on Wednesday announced a new team to monitor arms sanctions on North Korea.
Is North Korea sending soldiers to Russia?
According to Ukraine and South Korea, yes.
On October 8, Seoul’s defence minister Kim Yong-hyun told South Korean politicians that it was “highly likely” that North Korean officers were killed in a Ukrainian strike near Donetsk on October 3.
However, Russia has dismissed the allegation that North Korean personnel are in Russia.
“This seems like yet another fake news story,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier this month.
While Ukraine and South Korea have not made public any evidence to back their claims, experts say that North Korean military presence in Ukraine is plausible.
“We cannot rule out the possibility,” Edward Howell, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Oxford, told Al Jazeera. “We know that Russia needs manpower.”
Howell added that even if North Korea is not sending foot soldiers, “we cannot discount North Korea sending military engineers, as well as personnel to assist in monitoring and supervising the usage of North Korean weapons – which may be numerous in quantity, but of variable quality – in Ukraine”.
Howell’s research focuses on the politics and international relations of North Korea, the Korean Peninsula, and East Asia.
Zelenskyy earlier accused North Korea in a video address on Sunday of sending military personnel to fight for Russia against Ukraine.
In his Sunday video address, Zelenskyy said: “This is no longer just about transferring weapons. It is actually about transferring people from North Korea to the occupying military forces.”
“We see an increasing alliance between Russia and regimes like North Korea,” he warned.
Zelenskyy urged allies to step up their response to Russia, particularly in terms of lifting restrictions on Ukraine using long-range missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory.
“When we talk about giving Ukraine greater long-range capabilities and more decisive supplies for our forces, it’s not just a list of military equipment. It’s about increasing the pressure on the aggressor – pressure that will be stronger than what Russia can handle. And it’s about preventing an even larger war,” he said.
The United States has expressed concern over reports of a North Korean military presence in Ukraine – but has not independently made the accusation against Pyongyang itself.
General Charles Flynn, the US Army’s Asia Pacific commander, told an event in Washington that North Korean personnel being involved in the conflict would allow Pyongyang to get real-time feedback on its weapons for the first time.
“That kind of feedback from a real battlefield to North Korea to be able to make adjustments to their weapons, their ammunition, their capabilities, and even their people – to me, is very concerning,” he said, speaking at the Center for a New American Security on Tuesday.
