Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Russia is seeking an additional 30,000 North Korean troops for its war.
“We also see Russia’s cooperation with North Korea. Russia wants to receive another 30,000 troops from North Korea,” Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday. “Since June, preparations have been underway in Russia’s Voronezh region to receive them.”
He also alleged that North Korea will transfer additional launchers for ballistic missiles to Russia.
“This is a threat not only to Ukraine. Russia is helping North Korea learn how to wage war, improve its weapons, and gain real combat experience in using them,” he said.
“All of this is a threat to everyone in Asia who is within range of North Korean missiles.”
Ukrainian intelligence estimates that Pyongyang has sent between 12,000 and 14,000 soldiers in 2024 to help Russia’s assault on Kursk.
As many as 6,000 of them have died since then, The Guardian reported in April, citing South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence.
Several international media outlets have reported that North Korea has also sent laborers to Russia to work in slave-like conditions.
One worker told the BBC that he was chaperoned from the airport to a construction site in far-eastern Russia by a North Korean security agent, where he worked 18 hours a day with only two days off per year.
Another worker said that his supervisors wouldn’t allow him to check into a hospital after he gravely injured his face after falling four meters.
Notably, North Korea has not publicly stated the number of its troops lost in Russia, but Pyongyang’s supreme leader Kim Jong Un has mourned their losses.
“Ours is a heroic army … Our army has fully demonstrated its unique qualities. Such a result has cemented its appellation and reputation as the most powerful army in the world,” Kim said in August, according to KCNA.
Kim “highly appreciated their feats of leading the combat units of our armed forces, which participated in the operations to liberate the Kursk Region of the Russian Federation, to victory,” KCNA reported.
