Are North Koreans soldiers fighting in Ukraine war? Here’s what we know

The US has joined Ukraine and South Korea in confirming reports of North Korea dispatching troops, estimated to be in the thousands, to aid Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

In fresh findings, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said Pyongyang has sent around 3,000 troops – including special forces – to Russia’s far east for military training and acclimatising at the bases there, in what could be readiness for combat in the war.

The troops have been supplied with Russian military uniforms, weapons and false identification documents ahead of their deployment for combat, the NIS said.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin marked America’s first confirmation of North Korea and Russia’s military cooperation in Ukraine. “We are seeing evidence that there are North Korean troops” who have gone to Russia, he said in Rome on Wednesday.

“What exactly they’re doing – left to be seen,” Mr Austin said. It would be a “very, very serious issue” if Pyongyang indeed did join the war on Russia’s side, he said.

US officials said the disclosure was based on information from declassified intelligence but it is not known for certain that any North Korean soldiers will join the fighting in Ukraine.

The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected reports of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine as “fake news”.

On Monday, Volodymyr Zelensky said North Korean officers and technical personnel have already been spotted in Russian-occupied territories but did not specify when. “I believe they sent officers first to assess the situation before deploying troops,” Mr Zelensky said, warning that the participation of a third country could escalate the conflict into a world war.

The Ukrainian president claimed last week, without providing any details, that his government had intelligence that nearly 10,000 soldiers from North Korea were being prepared to join the Russian forces fighting in his country.

“They are preparing on their land 10,000 soldiers but they didn’t move them already to Ukraine or to Russia,” he told reporters at the Nato headquarters in Brussels.

Ukraine published a video purportedly showing dozens of North Koreans lining up to collect Russian military fatigues after South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said Pyongyang had shipped 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s Far East for training.

In the video, soldiers believed to be from North Korea, are seen standing in line to pick up bags, clothes and other apparel from Russian servicemen.

Ukrainian authorities said they “cannot provide additional verification from the sources who provided it to us due to security concerns”.

Ukraine and Russia have both received weapons from allies since Vladimir Putin invaded in February 2022, with Kyiv’s war effort increasingly reliant on money and arms from the West. But neither has yet been backed up by large deployments of troops from a third country.

The BBC quoted a Russian military source as saying a “number of North Koreans” had arrived in the country’s Far East. Sources on the Ukrainian side claimed the Russian military was forming a unit of about 3,000 North Koreans while the Russian source said the number was “absolutely nowhere near” that figure.

While Ukraine, South Korea and their Western allies have made allegations about North Korea’s active engagement in Russia’s war, they are yet to make public evidence to support their claims.

What is the extent of North Korea’s involvement?

The US believes at least 3,000 North Korean troops are undergoing training at three military bases in eastern Russia, White House spokesperson John Kirby said on Wednesday.

According to the White House, the US determined the North Korean soldiers were transported by ship in early-to-mid October from North Korea’s Wonsan region to the eastern Russian city of Vladivostok before being taken to three military training sites in eastern Russia, Mr Kirby said.

“If they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they’re fair game,” he said. “They’re fair targets and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they’re defending themselves against Russian soldiers.”

North Korea is forging closer military ties with Russia just as it is severing relations with South Korea, prompting the US, Japan, South Korea and eight other Western governments to form a new multinational team to monitor the enforcement of sanctions against Pyongyang.

The US Department of the Treasury claimed in May that Moscow had used more than 40 ballistic missiles from North Korea in its attacks across Ukraine as well as other munitions in breach of UN Security Council resolutions.

Mr Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un reportedly signed a mutual aid agreement in June to facilitate the transfer of ammunition and missiles for Moscow’s war effort.

The US State Department said there were signs that North Korea was increasing its supply of weapons like artillery shells and missiles to Russia which was “creating further instability in Europe”.

Are North Koreans already fighting for Russia?

Ukrainian media reported this month that six North Korean soldiers had been killed in a missile strike in eastern Donetsk on 3 October. The reports have not been confirmed.

“The issue of deploying regular troops is highly likely due to the mutual agreements that resemble a military alliance” between Pyongyang and Moscow, South Korean defence minister Kim Yong-Hyun said earlier this month.

The Kremlin rejected the claim, calling it “yet another fake news story”.

South Korea’s spy agency said it used AI facial recognition technology to identify a delegation of dozens of North Korean officers visiting frontline areas in Ukraine to instruct Russian soldiers how to operate KN-23 ballistic missiles allegedly supplied by Pyongyang.

It also claimed vessels of Russia’s Pacific Fleet were detected moving the North Korean special forces troops to Vladivostok from 8 to 13 October.

A North Korean troop deployment, if confirmed, would bolster the fast-diminishing ranks of the Russian military. Neither side makes casualty figures public, but the New York Times reported Russia had seen at least 115,000 soldiers killed and 500,000 wounded since the start of the war over two years ago.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported last month that about one million Ukrainians and Russians had been killed or wounded since the war began.

There have been reports in the past that North Korea sent civilian workers to help with reconstruction efforts in occupied Ukrainian regions captured by Russia after the war started in February 2022.

How does sending troops to Ukraine benefit Pyongyang?

North Korea’s strategic partnership with Moscow has deepened significantly since Mr Kim travelled to Russia for a rare foreign visit last year.

Mr Putin then visited the North this year and the two leaders signed a defence pact that called for mutual assistance “using all available means” in the event of aggression against either country.

The North would receive Russian funds for sending troops to the Ukrainian frontline, money which Pyongyang needs to build its nuclear force, said Andrei Lankov, director of a security analysis firm Korea Risk Group.

“Pyongyang would be paid well and maybe get access to Russian military technology, which otherwise Moscow would have been reluctant to transfer to North Korea,” Mr Lankov told the BBC.

“It would also give their soldiers real combat experience, but there is also the risk of exposing North Koreans to life in the West, which is a considerably more prosperous place.”

US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said that any North Korean involvement in the war would represent a significant increase in its defence ties with Russia.

“It also indicates a new level of desperation for Russia as it continues to suffer significant casualties on the battlefield in its brutal war against Ukraine,” he was quoted as saying by The Guardian.

In a show of support, Russia in March vetoed a UN resolution that effectively abolished monitoring by UN experts of Security Council sanctions against North Korea. It prompted Western accusations that Moscow was acting to shield its arms purchases from Pyongyang to fuel its war in Ukraine.

North Korea has shipped about 7,000 containers filled with munitions to Russia since last year and in return for 9,000 Russian containers likely filled with aid, South Korea has claimed.

Aiding Russia can also backfire on Pyongyang as North Korea has been under UN Security Council sanctions since 2006 and the measures have been steadily strengthened over the years with the aim of halting Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

The Security Council has a North Korea sanctions committee – made up of the 15 council members, including Russia – to “examine and take appropriate action on information regarding alleged violations.” It operates by consensus and can designate individuals and entities.

A Security Council member could also propose action through the adoption of a resolution, but that would require at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, France or Britain.

How are the US and its allies responding?

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said on Monday that Pyongyang sending troops to Ukraine would significantly escalate the conflict. He previously said the alliance had “no evidence that North Korean soldiers are involved in the fight”.

He said it was “highly worrying” any way that North Korea was supporting Russia through “weapons supplies, technological supplies, innovation, to support them in the war effort”.

German and British officials also weighed in on Wednesday, with South Korea hinting that it could support Ukraine with military weapons in the event of North Korea’s confirmed involvement.

“We don’t even know whether we are talking about 1,500 or 12,000, or which kind of soldiers are coming to Russia and to fight where and against,” German defence minister Boris Pistorius said. “It’s a kind of escalation and it shows us a very important, a very important aspect. International conflicts are approaching very rapidly.”

British defence secretary John Healey said there was “not just a concern about the potential for an escalation of conflict in Europe. There is an indivisible link with security concerns in the Indo-Pacific as well.”

Earlier this week, South Korea’s foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador in Seoul to register its protest and demand the immediate withdrawal of alleged North Korean troops from Ukraine.

Kim Hong-kyun, the South’s first vice foreign minister, said the participation of North Korean troops in the war in Ukraine violated UN resolutions and the UN charter and posed serious threats to the security of South Korea.

“We condemn North Korea’s illegal military cooperation, including its dispatch of troops to Russia, in the strongest terms,” the ministry quoted Mr Kim as saying.

The US, Japan and South Korea have separately issued a joint statement condemning North Korea for its nuclear and missile developments, deepening military cooperation with Russia and engaging in allegedly illegal activities to fund its weapons programmes. The statement also highlighted Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to defend its allies.