Despite the heavy casualties it has suffered in the war between Russia and Ukraine, North Korea appears to have sent more troops to Russia as its soldiers re-entered frontline combat, South Korea’s spy agency said on Thursday.
The National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s main spy agency, said it was still trying to assess the size of the new deployment. But its brief statement followed a report in a South Korean newspaper, JoongAng, citing anonymous sources, that North Korea has sent up to 3,000 additional troops since January by ship and military cargo planes.
North Korea sent an estimated 11,000 troops to Russia late last year, and has supplied large shipments of artillery shells, missiles and other conventional weapons. The troops were sent to the Kursk region, where they fought alongside Russian forces to help them regain territory lost to Ukraine.
But the North Korean soldiers pulled back from the front lines in January after suffering heavy casualties, according to Ukrainian and U.S. officials. They hailed from North Korea’s highly disciplined special warfare units, but were badly prepared for drone attacks on the mostly open and flat battlefields in eastern Europe. Thousands have been killed or wounded, according to South Korean officials.
Earlier this month, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that North Korean troops were back on the front lines, a view echoed by the South Korean spy agency on Thursday.
“Following a monthlong lull, North Korean troops were placed back in the frontline region of Kursk starting in the first week of February,” it said.
The Russian war against Ukraine is the first major overseas armed conflict in decades to which North Korea has sent its soldiers, helping its military gain valuable lessons in real-life, modern warfare despite the heavy casualties, military analysts said.
South Korean officials have also expressed concerns that North Korea was receiving food, oil and advanced weapons technologies from Russia in return for its troops and artillery.
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has sought to upgrade his nuclear and other weapons programs and find new diplomatic partners for his pariah government since his diplomacy with President Trump collapsed in 2019.
Mr. Kim made Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, a new ally by supplying Moscow with badly needed ammunition and troops. When Mr. Putin met with Mr. Kim in Pyongyang in June last year, they revived a Cold War-era mutual defense treaty.
Since Mr. Trump returned to the White House in January, he has vowed to end the war. He has also hinted that he was interested in reviving diplomacy with the North Korean leader. But Mr. Kim has not publicly responded.
