North Korea sent an additional 3,000 troops to aid Russia’s war in Ukraine this year, South Korea said Thursday, as Pyongyang’s support appears to continue even as Moscow moves toward negotiations to end the conflict.
The troop reinforcements were sent between January and February, bringing the total number of North Korean troops deployed to fight alongside the Russians to an estimated 11,000, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in an assessment Thursday.
Around 4,000 of them are “believed to have been killed or injured,” it said.
Seoul’s update came as Russia’s security council chief Sergei Shoigu met with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang last week, where he forwarded a message from Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Russian state news agency TASS, Shoigu said they discussed security issues “in different regions and on the Korean Peninsula in particular.”
Cooperation with North Korea continued even as Moscow and Kyiv agreed on a limited and temporary ceasefire, as the White House made shaky attempts in Saudi Arabia this week to broker a long-term deal. Both sides have already accused each other of violating the agreed-upon deal, which prohibits targeting energy infrastructure.
The Ukraine military on Thursday said it shot down 42 drones launched by Russia toward various regions, including in the southern regions around Russian-annexed Crimea.
It did not say if the drones targeted energy infrastructure.
Separately, the Ukrainian emergency service said that at least 12 people were injured from a drone strike in Kharkiv on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, European allies are expected to meet in Paris on Thursday to discuss aid for Ukraine and long-term peace, as U.S. support for Ukraine recedes under President Donald Trump.
Beyond troops, Pyongyang has also continued to provide Moscow with munitions, Seoul has said. “To date, it is estimated that North Korea has supplied a substantial quantity of [short-range ballistic missiles], 170mm self-propelled guns, and about 220 240mm multiple rocket launchers,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in the assessment.
The volume of those weapons is also “expected to increase depending on battlefield developments,” it added.
North Korea’s troops, widely considered disciplined and trained, nevertheless lack battlefield experience, which experts say is why they have suffered relatively high casualties from drone and artillery attacks.
Still, Pyongyang’s contribution is a further sign of deepening ties with the Kremlin, with which it signed a mutual defense treaty last year, elevating their status to that of formal allies. North Korea has receievd technical assistance from Russia for its satellite program, according to Seoul.
U.S. officials and others say that North Korea may also be receiving support for its growing nuclear ambitions in return for its military support.
It’s against this backdrop that Kim is considering a visit to Moscow, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Pyongyang.
“The plans are big,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko was quoted as saying Thursday by the Russian news agency Interfax, reflected in the high-level delegation Russia is considering sending to North Korea. “We will implement them.”
