South Korea’s spy agency released images on Friday claiming to show North Korean troops training at military bases in Russia’s far eastern region. The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said they are the initial wave of what South Korean officials say will be 12,000 North Korean troops, including members of its notorious special forces, fighting in Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine.
“The suspicions of ‘direct military cooperation between Russia and North Korea’ raised by foreign media outlets have been officially confirmed,” NIS stated. “We will continue to track and confirm the movement of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea through close intelligence cooperation with allied countries.”
That information comes a day after Ukraine’s spy boss told us that there are currently nearly 11,000 North Korean troops in eastern Russia, who will be ready to fight by Nov. 1. On Friday, Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR), told us that figure was revised upward to 11,800. At least six of Pyongyang’s forces, as we previously noted, have already been killed in Ukraine.
The North Korean soldiers dispatched to Russia “are currently stationed at Russian military bases in the Far East, including Vladivostok, Ussuriysk, Khabarovsk, and Blagoveshchensk,” South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) stated in a new assessment released Friday. Those troops “are expected to be deployed to the front lines as soon as they complete their adaptation training.”
All four bases are at least 4,000 miles east of Ukraine.
NIS released images purporting to show at least 400 North Korean troops training at Ussuriysk and at least 240 at Khabarovsk. However, the number of troops and if they are even North Korean cannot be confirmed by the satellite imagery provided.
NIS said it began observing North Korean troops in Russia back in early August.
It detected First Vice Director of the Munitions Industry Department Kim Jong-sik – “a key figure in North Korea’s missile development” – “visiting the North Korean KN-23 missile launch site near the Russia-Ukraine frontline several times with dozens of North Korean military officers and providing on-site guidance,” the spy agency said in the assessment.
NIS then “closely monitored” the movements of the North Korean military and detected North Korea “transporting its special forces to Russia via Russian naval transport ships from [Aug] 8th to the 13th, confirming the start of the North Korean military’s participation in the war.”
To move these troops, the Russian Navy entered North Korean waters for the first time since 1900, according to NIS.
“…four landing ships and three escort ships belonging to the Russian Pacific Fleet completed the first transfer of approximately 1,500 North Korean special forces from the areas near Chongjin, Hamhung, and Musudan to Vladivostok, Russia during the same period, and a second transport operation is expected to take place soon,” NIS explained.
With more than 120,000 troops, North Korea has one of the world’s largest special operations forces. They are tasked with five basic missions: conducting reconnaissance, performing combat operations in conjunction with conventional operations, establishing a second front in South Korea’s rear areas, countering South Korean/U.S. special operations forces in North Korea’s rear area, and maintaining internal security. Above all else, causing mayhem deep behind the front lines during a war with the South would be on the top of their to do list. It is known that these troops are North Korea’s most hardened and go through extremely harsh training. Videos of their brutal demonstration have been circulating for years.
NIS released a synthetic aperture radar satellite image claiming to show Russian ships at Musudan, less than 200 miles south of Vladivostok. The nature of the image makes that impossible to confirm without other supporting evidence.
In addition, Russian Air Force AN-124 cargo jets “have been frequently traveling between Vladivostok and Pyongyang,” NIS said.
Before departing for Russia, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un “inspected the special forces unit twice before the deployment” on Sept. 11 and Oct. 2, according to NIS.
The North Korean soldiers “were issued Russian military uniforms and Russian-made weapons, and were also issued fake ID cards for residents of the Yakutia and Buryat regions of Siberia who look similar to North Koreans. It appears that they disguised themselves as Russian soldiers to hide the fact that they were deployed to the battlefield.
Budanov confirmed that to The War Zone Friday.
“The first battalion of 2,600 troops will be formed in the 11th Airborne Brigade and are preparing for deployment in the Kursk region with documents of cover as Russian citizens from the Buryat and Yakutia regions,” he told The War Zone exclusively.
In addition to what the NIS shared, other videos emerged on social media purporting to show North Korean troops training and being equipped in Russia.
The NIS assessment came after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol “convened an emergency security meeting amid mounting speculation that the North may be providing its soldiers to fight Russia’s war in Ukraine,” the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported.
The presidential office said South Korea “has been closely tracking North Korea’s troop movement to Russia from the beginning in coordination with its allies, and will continue to monitor the situation and take all necessary measures proactively.”
The North’s move “signals a major development in the military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang besides their suspected arms trade, already criticized by the international community,” Yonhap posited.
We reached out to the Pentagon and White House National Security Council for additional details and will update this story with any pertinent information they provide.
This all comes in the wake of recent treaty negotiations between Moscow and Pyongyang.
As we previously reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted a draft law to the Russian State Duma recently seeking ratification of a strategic partnership between Moscow and Pyongyang, hammered out in June. It calls for each side to provide military assistance to each other in the event of war. Seoul has said it was considering changing its policy against providing lethal aide to Ukraine in response to that pact.
In addition to offering new details about North Korean troop movements to Russia, NIS provided more granularity about Pyongyang’s shipment of arms to Moscow.
NIS “assessed that North Korea had provided Russia with a total of 13,000 containers of shells, missiles, and anti-tank rockets, as well as other lethal weapons, on approximately 70 occasions since August of last year.”
The South Korean spy agency released satellite images purporting to be some of the vessels in North Korea’s Nanjin port transporting the weapons to Russia.
As a result of GUR “confirming North Korean weapons collected from the battlefield, the weapons North Korea provided to Russia included 122mm and 152mm shells, Bulsae-4 anti-tank missiles, short-range ballistic missiles such as the KN-23, and RPG anti-tank rockets,” the South Korean spy agency assessed. “Considering the size of containers loaded on cargo ships traveling between North Korea and Russia, it appears that a total of more than 8 million 122mm and 152mm shells have been provided to Russia so far.”
As we previously wrote, the Ukrainian government announced that the KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles that North Korea provided to Russia were used in attacks on major cities, including the Ukrainian capital Kyiv resulting in a significant number of civilian casualties.
“However, Ukrainian intelligence authorities analyzed that many North Korean weapons have a high defect rate and low accuracy, so they are being used for mass offensives to maintain the front line rather than precision strikes,” NIS added.
As the war in Ukraine grinds on, North Korea’s supply of troops and arms to Russia helps Vladimir Putin continue his fight. The Pentagon recently said that some 600,000 Russian troops have been killed and wounded since the all-out invasion was launched in February 2022 and that September saw the highest rate of casualties of any month since.
Meanwhile, this could just be the start of a much larger deployment of North Korean forces to Russia. Pyongyang’s greatest asset is the number of troops it has, with one of the largest standing armies on earth. While many are poorly trained and fed, Kim could trade large numbers of troops to Russia in exchange for things it desperately needs – hard currency, food and other goods, and military assistance. Russian doctrine is on display in Ukraine, flowing huge numbers of troops in so-called “meat assaults” against Ukrainian positions. Even untrained North Koreans would help Russia continue to carry out those attacks. North Korea will also gain highly valuable combat experience on a modern battlefield, something it currently lacks.
It remains to be seen just how well the North Korean troops will perform, but one South Korean military observer told us they will prove challenging to Ukraine.
“North Korean combat troops in Ukraine is alarming but not surprising,” said In-Bum Chun, a retired South Korean lieutenant general who ran that nation’s special operations forces and is now a military analyst. “They are the pick of the crop.”
The public reaction in South Korea to news of North Korea sending troops to Ukraine “is surprise and concern about the implications of these activities,” said Chun. “I am sure the Ukrainians will have a challenge.”
Update: 9:11 PM Eastern-
White House National Security Council Spokesman Sean Savett responded to our query:
“We are highly concerned by reports of DPRK soldiers fighting on behalf of Russia. We are unable to confirm whether these reports are accurate, but if true, this would mark a dangerous development in Russia’s war against Ukraine. If the DPRK joins Russia, we will consult with our allies and partners on the implications of such a dramatic move. Such a move would also indicate Russia’s growing desperation as it continues to suffer extraordinary casualties on the battlefield in its brutal war against Ukraine. If Russia is indeed forced to turn to the DPRK for manpower, this would be a sign of desperation, not strength, on the part of the Kremlin.”
U.S. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the powerful House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), sent a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden demanding he present to the world that the introduction of North Korean troops to this conflict is a red line not to be crossed.
“These troop movements, if true, are alarming and are an extreme escalation of the conflict in Ukraine,” he wrote. “They require an immediate response from the United States and our NATO allies to avoid a widening conflict.”
“North Korean troops, either attacking Ukraine from Russian territory or entering into Ukrainian territory must be a red line for the United States and NATO. Your administration must make that absolutely clear and unequivocal.”
Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com