While South Korea, Ukraine and the United States assure that at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers are preparing to fight alongside Russian troops, both Moscow and Pyongyang continue to deny this. At the same time, North Korea launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, October 31. Concrete evidence could emerge quickly, as the head of American diplomacy Antony Blinken assures that 8,000 North Koreans are already in the Russian region of Kursk, on the border with Ukraine.
A war is also being fought on the media front. The series of North Korean soldiers is a perfect illustration of this. And the only information comes from intelligence from the enemies of Moscow and Pyongyang. At least 10 000 North Korean soldiers in Russiacamouflaged behind Russian equipment according to the Pentagon. According to the services of Seoul and kyiv, there could be 19,000 men landing on Russian soil.
Also listen: North Korea deploys its soldiers on the Russian front “in exchange for financial aid”
Special forces of 200,000 soldiers
Within the gigantic Korean People’s Army, made up of 1.5 million men and 7 million reservists, Pyongyang would not have sent simple conscripts. With 10 years of military service for men and five to eight for women, war is everyone’s business. North Korea. But according to South Korean intelligence, the North’s leader Kim Jong-un would have deployed its elite troops: one to two units of the commando forces of the 11th army corps. Young soldiers, in their early twenties, trained and over-prepared for rapid and effective interventions. Trusted men of the regime who theoretically present a lower risk of defection than a rank-and-file soldier.
According to a rapport American military intelligence, they benefit from the best equipment in the country, whether in terms of parachutes, planes, explosives. In total, almost 200,000 soldiers would compose North Korean special forces, within the navy, the air force and the army.
North Korean soldiers celebrate Tuesday in Pyongyang the 85th anniversary of the creation of their army. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
Far from the image of an army of men who are too small, poorly fed and under-equipped often conveyed in the press. The arrival of thousands or tens of thousands of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine and/or in the Kursk region, is not a threat to be taken lightly. Especially since the North Korean army has modernized. Its ballistic arsenal, developed almost without external assistance, is impressive and its ammunition production capacity has been maintained at a very high level. A necessity for a State which has lived on the verge of a resumption of war since 1953.
Also read: North Korean soldiers in Ukraine: what consequences for the peninsula?
Necessary training to deal with drones and advanced equipment
However, this does not mean that these elite forces, certainly accompanied by management and military engineers, are prepared to fight directly on the Ukrainian front. The omnipresence of drones or advanced equipment is not something the North Korean army is used to dealing with. Hence the need to prepare in Russia before a potential “ deployment to the front in early November “, according to Ukraine’s ambassador to the UN.
Because this is the first real war experience for the North Korean army since the Korean War (1950-1953). During the Vietnam War, more than 1 000 soldiers had gone to assist the men of the Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh. Around forty regime pilots had also participated in the Yom Kippur War, on the side of Egypt. While some believe that this real combat experience in Ukraine would be greatly beneficial to the North Korean military, Jenny Town, director of the 38 North observation site ” is doubtful » : « This means that troops who are training and going to fight will return home. I’m not sure this is the intended scenario. »
Also read: For NATO, sending North Korean troops to Ukraine would be “a significant escalation”
