N. Korea troops in Russia broadens conflict, with global ramifications

Their first task may be to evict Ukrainian troops in control of Russia's Kursk region

- Jonathan Eyal

Ukraine's intelligence services claim that they have spotted the first deployment of North Korean troops near the front line with Russian forces.

An Oct 29 report by the Ukrainian Defence Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate based on intercepts of Russian military communications asserts that Russian lorries bearing civilian number plates have begun to move North Korean soldiers to the Russian region of Kursk, a part of Russia that Ukraine has occupied since August.

The number of North Korean soldiers who may be readying for battle and the total figure it is deploying in Europe continue to be disputed.

At a meeting with European Union leaders on Oct 17, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Russia plans "to train 10,000 soldiers from various branches of the (North Korean) military" for deployment against Ukraine.

However, a delegation of South Korea's National Intelligence Service that has spent much of this week briefing Western officials at the Brussels headquarters of Nato has spoken of only around 1,500 North Korean soldiers currently deployed in the Ukraine theatre of military operations, with expectations that the North Korean contingent in Russia may eventually rise to around 12,000.

And Mr Oleksiy Hetman, a noted Ukrainian defence specialist, claimed that North Korea may ultimately be prepared to deploy up to 100,000 on Russia's side.

What is evident, however, is that the arrival of the North Koreans is the clearest indication yet that the war in Ukraine is slowly morphing into a broader confrontation with global ramifications.

Since at least mid-2022 - a few months after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine - tens of thousands of shipping containers have left North Korean ports, carrying munitions and particularly artillery shells destined for Russia.