TAIPIEI, Taiwan – The North Korean forces deployed in the Russian Kursk region could soon be sent to annexed regions of Ukraine which remain fiercely disputed by the Russian and Ukrainian forces, said a senior Ukrainian official.
According to Ukraine and the United States, 12,000 North Korean soldiers are in Russia, to fight against the Ukrainian forces which occupied parts of the region of Russia in an offensive of the counter-offensive in August. Neither North Korea nor Russia recognized their presence.
“Russia plans to use the RPDC soldiers for the war on Ukraine territory,” said Andrei Kovalenko, head of the Center for the disinformation of the National Security Service.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or RPDC, is the official name of North Korea.
“But the Russians will manipulate and indicate that the North Korean soldiers are fighting on Russian territory by the Russian Constitution,” he said in an article on the Telegram messaging application.
Russia has annexed four Ukrainian regions – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – after condemning referendums widely condemned in September 2022. Kovalenko suggested that these occupied territories are the most likely destinations for North Korean troops.
The international community has not recognized the annexation by Russia of Ukrainian lands and ferocious fighting continues while Ukraine pushes in these regions.
Kovalenko said Russia also imports work in North Korea, mainly young people aged 18 to 25, for industrial work. In return, the North Korean authorities receive US $ 1,000 per person from Russia.
Radio Free Asia has not independently checked its claims.
The main spy agency in South Korea reported in October that Russia would pay the North Korean troops of around $ 2,000 per month each, although most of the money “would remain with the state”.
Kovalenko’s remarks came in the middle of the information according to which the Russian artillery units were almost entirely based on the ammunition provided by North Korea to maintain their bombings along the Ukrainian front.
Between September 2023 and March 2025, four ships struck by Russians made 64 trips carrying nearly 16,000 containers from North Korea to Russian ports, according to satellite data analyzed by the Open Source Center based in the United Kingdom. It is estimated that shipments have included between 4 million and 6 million artillery shells.
In comparison, Russia would not have produced more than 2.3 million artillery shells at national level in 2024, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.
Although the Kremlin denied the transfers of weapons from North Korea in October 2023, at least six reports of Russian artillery unit examined by the Reuters news agency confirmed that between 50% and 100% of the ammunition used in Ukraine this year were of North Korean origin. Three other unit reports did not mention the North Korean ammunition.
North Korea and Russia have deepened their military and economic ties in recent months, Pyongyang would have provided Moscow large amounts of ammunition and other military aid for its war in Ukraine.
In return, Russia has provided technological assistance and extended cooperation in various sectors, fueling concerns about potential weapons transfers and security threats.
High -level meetings between officials from the two countries, including the Defense Ministers, reported an increasing strategic partnership.
Edited by Mike Firn and Stephen Wright.