North Korean forces have been dispatched to Russia’s embattled Kursk region, according to the latest public U.S. military assessments.
Thus far, the U.S. military assesses that there are about 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia. U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary, said at an Oct. 29 news briefing that a portion of these North Korean forces “have already moved closer to Ukraine, toward Russia’s Kursk Oblast, near the border with Ukraine.”
Ryder said the North Korean contingent heading to Kursk consists of “a couple thousand” troops, with an unspecified “smaller number” already present in the Russian region.
Ukrainian forces began a cross-border incursion into Kursk in August in hopes of creating a counterweight to the Russian forces fighting throughout eastern Ukraine. Russian forces have worked for more than two months to retake their Kursk territory, but the Ukrainians still maintain a foothold in the region.
Pyongyang has denied sending its troops to Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin did not deny the alleged North Korean deployment when asked about it during an Oct. 24 news conference. Instead, Putin cited a mutual defense article of Russia’s partnership deal with North Korea and said, “[What] we do within the framework of this article is our business.”
The U.S. military is still assessing exactly how Russia intends to use North Korean forces.
“Initial indications are that these troops will be employed in some type of infantry role, but again, what that could be remains to be seen,” Ryder said of the North Korean forces allegedly in Russia.
The Pentagon spokesman declined to assess the capability and fighting prowess of the North Korean forces in Russia but shared some assessments that Russian military leaders are unsure about how to fold them into the broader Russian war effort.
“There are reports about consternation among the Russian forces themselves on how best to integrate these forces into their own operations, to include, obviously, the language barrier,” Ryder said.
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrived in Russia’s Far Eastern city of Vladivostok on Oct. 29 to continue discussions on the Russian–North Korean strategic dialogue. Russia’s state-sponsored Tass news agency reported that Putin currently has no plans to meet Choe during her visit.
The Pentagon has repeatedly said that should North Korean forces help retake the Kursk territory for Russia or assist the Russian war effort in Ukraine more directly, it would be a sign of growing desperation on Putin’s part after nearly three years of war.
“This is an indication of the dire situation that Russia finds itself in, in terms of manpower on the front lines,” Ryder said on Oct. 29. “They have experienced significant casualties in this war, and the fact that they now need to outsource for foreign troops to help support their forces inside Russia indicates that there’s some serious questions in terms of their ability to continue to sustain their personnel requirements.”
Earlier this month, the Pentagon estimated that Russia had sustained about 600,000 casualties thus far in the war, including troops killed or wounded on the battlefield.
Exact casualty figures cannot be independently verified, and both sides have said little about their own losses throughout the war.
