Today, there are a lot of interesting updates from the Russian Federation.
Here, for the first time, Russia and North Korea have openly acknowledged direct North Korean military involvement in the war. With increasing Russian pressure on their eastern front, the Ukrainian command are expecting North Korean troops to be deployed to the frontline in eastern Ukraine very soon.
The military cooperation between North Korea and Russia has significantly developed since the start of the war. The North Koreans provided Russians with between 4 and 8 million artillery shells and other heavy equipment, as approximately one in two artillery shells fired by Russian forces is of North Korean origin. As it is well known, North Korea also sent up to 12,000 soldiers for frontline combat operations in the Kursk region, with an additional 3,000 replacements earlier this year.
Previously, both Russia and North Korea staunchly refused to admit their deployment of North Korean troops in the war. However, recently, both Russian and North Korean sources admitted the direct involvement of North Korean soldiers in Kursk.
Russia’s Chief of General Staff, Gerasimov, praised the North Korean soldiers for their supposed high level of professionalism during battles near Kursk, thanking them for their assistance during the Russian counteroffensive. And in a dramatic address, Kim Jong-Un also confirmed the direct participation of North Korean forces in the war, publicly honoring fallen soldiers as heroes and promising state recognition for their sacrifice, including erecting a monument for them in Pyongyang.
Ukrainian soldiers have noted that North Korean soldiers are indeed well-disciplined and skilled soldiers to fight against individually. However, their tactics, doctrine, and practices were outdated and severely lacking, resulting in a nearly 40% casualty rate in the first 3 months of their deployment.
As Russian forces have largely pushed Ukrainians out of Kursk, save for an approximate 40 square kilometers strip of land along the border, many military analysts state it is highly likely that North Korean soldiers won’t be sent back to North Korea.
Andrii Kovalenko, a senior member of the Ukrainian national defense and security council, stated that Russians are preparing to send their available North Korean contingent to the frontline in eastern and southern Ukraine, wearing Russian uniforms. Russia plans to justify deploying North Korean forces to occupied territories by citing their annexation under Russian law, recognized only by North Korea, allowing Pyongyang to claim to be defending its ally’s borders without formally declaring war on Ukraine.
Unfortunately for Russians, Ukrainians seem to be delaying this redeployment, putting the Russian high command once again in front of a painful dilemma. The North Korean contingent has been integrated and fighting together with several key Russian units. However, many of these Russian units are currently preoccupied with containing the Ukrainian Belgorod incursion, and cannot be redeployed with the North Koreans.
If Russian commanders decide to redeploy the North Koreans without their Russian comrades, this would lead to high losses for both the redeployed North Koreans and the new Russian units supposed to fight with them, due to the would-be lack of proper integration and familiarity.
However, if Russian commanders wait too long, the combined Russian and North Korean elements would be thrust into the middle of an ongoing Russian offensive without the proper time to prepare, again leading to undoubtedly high losses.
Regardless, while North Korean troops were initially extremely inexperienced in the art of contemporary warfare, North Korean soldiers have had to adapt quickly or continue to lose thousands to Ukrainian drones, artillery, and machine guns. This increased skill, though learned at a high cost, in combination with their fanatical conviction on the battlefield, could make the North Koreans an increasingly valuable asset to any Russian commander during the upcoming summer offensives in the east.
Overall, both Russia and North Korea confirmed that North Korean soldiers are and were actively involved in frontline operations in Kursk, raising questions about the possibility of their further deployment to Eastern Ukraine. With the increasing likelihood of a third country directly participating in the war, this escalation could lead to a significant increase in military aid to Ukraine by its allies, especially South Korea, which is more than willing to counter its main adversary both directly and indirectly.
In our regular frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
