Nov. 17, 2024, 8:31 p.m.
(Photo: Ed Jones/AFP)
North Korea may send up to 100,000 troops to support Russia's war in Ukraine.
According to<b> </b>Bloomberg, North Korea<span> could deploy up to 100,000 troops to support Russia's war in Ukraine if the alliance between Pyongyang and Moscow continues to deepen. </span>According to the sources of the publication, this analysis is one of several devoted to the partnership between Russian President Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The interlocutors emphasized that such a move is not inevitable and that military support of this magnitude, if it occurs, will likely be provided by groups with rotating troops over time, rather than as part of a single deployment.
The outlet quotes Ukraine's Ambassador to South Korea Dmytro Ponomarenko, who said in early November that Kyiv estimates that up to 15,000 North Korean troops fighting in Russia's Kursk region and possibly in the occupied areas of eastern Ukraine will rotate every few months. According to Bloomberg, the issue of cooperation between the DPRK and Russia will be raised by several allies at the G-20 summit in Brazil this week, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. According to German officials, Scholz will press the Chinese leader during their meeting in Rio on Tuesday to use his influence on Russia and North Korea to avoid further escalation in the war.
The first information about the DPRK military's participation in the war on the side of the aggressor appeared in early October, and later this information was confirmed by Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence. On October 14, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that North Korea had entered the war on the side of Russia. The media reported that military engineers from the DPRK were already assisting Russia in launching ballistic missile strikes against Ukraine. It has also been reported that the DPRK is moving its military to training grounds in the Russian Far East region, where they are undergoing training. According to Ukrainian intelligence, about 3,000 North Korean troops are already at training grounds near the combat zone, and their total number may increase to 12,000.
On October 23, the Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate reported that the first DPRK soldiers had arrived at the front, spotted in the Kursk region of Russia. On October 29, CNN noted that a small number of these soldiers are already in Ukraine. On October 21, the Kremlin neither confirmed nor denied the information about the deployment of North Korean troops to training grounds in Russia. At the same time, US Representative to the UN Robert Wood said that Russia had fired at least 9 times at Ukraine with missiles received from the DPRK. Earlier, former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin confirmed that Russia had already used missiles from North Korea in the war against Ukraine.
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