KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian intelligence believes that North Korea has expanded its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine from providing weapons to sending thousands of its own soldiers to fight for the Kremlin, a source tells NBC News.
The news was previously reported by various outlets.
“The first units are already being formed for deployment to the border areas and Russian territories,” the intelligence source said Tuesday.
Several thousand soldiers were being trained in Russia’s Far East, the source added.
“These units are also being equipped and prepared for dispatch,” possibly in the direction of Kursk, a Russian region where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion in August.
The first group of North Korean soldiers is currently in Ulan-Ude, capital of the Russian region of Buryatia, the source said.
On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said North Koreans were fighting with Russia, and that there was “an increasing alliance between Russia and regimes like North Korea.”
“This is no longer just about transferring weapons,” he said in his nightly video address. “It is actually about transferring people from North Korea to the occupying military forces.”
The State Department said Tuesday that it was concerned by the reports of North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia.
“If that’s true, it would mark a significant increase in the relationship between those two countries, the relationship that you have seen develop over the past several months,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Asked about the allegation on Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was a hoax.
It comes at a time when Russia is facing multiple setbacks, not just in Ukraine where it is struggling with casualties and depleted munitions, but also in Kursk, which is the first Russian territory to be under foreign military occupation since World War II.
Pyongyang is already providing Moscow with badly needed ammunition, including millions of artillery shells, in exchange for key military technology for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, U.S. officials have said.
Moscow and Pyongyang deny any transfer of arms but committed to strengthening their military ties in June when Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a pact in Pyongyang that includes a pledge of mutual defense.
Previously, the North Korean military has been unable to get real-time feedback on its weapons, said Gen. Charles Flynn, the U.S. Army’s Indo-Pacific commander.
“They don’t have very good ranges in North Korea,” he said Tuesday at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.
That could change with the involvement of North Korean soldiers in the Ukraine war.
“That kind of feedback from a real battlefield to North Korea to be able to make adjustments on their weapons, their ammunition, their capabilities, and even their people — to me, is very concerning,” Flynn said.
Anastasiia Parafeniuk reported from Kyiv, Ukraine, and Mithil Aggarwal reported from Hong Kong.
