North Korea is set to triple the number of its troops fighting for Russia along the front lines with Ukraine, sending an additional 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers to assist Moscow, according to an intelligence assessment from Ukrainian officials.
The troops may arrive in Russia in the coming months, according to the assessment seen by CNN, adding to the 11,000 sent in November who helped repel Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
Around 4,000 of those North Korean soldiers were killed or injured in the deployment, according to Western officials, yet Pyongyang’s cooperation with Moscow has since bloomed.
The Ukrainian assessment seen by CNN says the Russian ministry of defense is capable of providing “needed equipment, weapons and ammunition” with the aim of “further integration to Russian combat units.”
The document adds “there is a great possibility” the North Korean troops will be engaged in combat in parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine “to strengthen the Russian contingent, including during the large-scale offensive operations.”
The assessment also says there are signs that Russian military aircraft are being refitted to carry personnel, reflecting the vast undertaking of moving tens of thousands of foreign troops across Russian Siberia, which shares a border with North Korea in its far southwest.
Possible preparations for the new deployment, including the arrival of a ship linked to last year’s deployments at a Russian port, and cargo aircraft at North Korea’s Sunan airport, have been spotted on satellite imagery obtained by CNN.
Satellite imagery of the Sunan airport in North Korea on June 4, 2025 shows what appear to be cargo planes on the tarmac, possibly IL76s, used in last year’s deployments. These movements could suggest a pattern consistent with previous troop transfers.
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“Satellite imagery shows a Russian personnel carrier arriving at Dunai in May, and activity at Sunan airport in May and June,” said Joe Byrne, senior analyst at the Open Source Centre.
“This appears to indicate the routes previously used to move DPRK troops are active, and could be used in any large-scale future transfer of personnel.”
In a pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, two guards stand underneath portraits of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin during a welcome ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang on June 19, 2024.
Jenny Town, senior fellow and director of the Korean program at the Stimson Center, said the Ukrainian assessment of up to 30,000 sounded “high… but they can certainly come up with that number. They won’t be elite soldiers. Kim Jong Un has said he is all in, so it depends on what Russia has asked for.”
Town said 10,000 to 20,000 “sounds more realistic,” and that North Korea might slowly deploy the troops in stages. “There have been rumors that Russian generals have been inside North Korea training troops there already,” she said.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Thursday that Kyiv suspected further North Korean troops might be deployed but added that the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, risked putting his own government in peril by exposing so many elite troops to the high casualty rates of the front line.
“Russia’s use of elite North Korean troops demonstrates not only a growing reliance on totalitarian regimes but also serious problems with its mobilization reserve,” Umerov said. “Together with our partners, we are monitoring these threats and will respond accordingly.”
On Friday, Ukraine’s military chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Russia was amassing 110,000 troops near the front-line hotspot town of Pokrovsk, in preparation for a possible offensive on the strategic population center.
Sergei Shoigu, a top adviser to Putin who previously served as his defense minister, visited Pyongyang on June 17 – a trip made on Putin’s orders, and his second visit in a fortnight, the Russian state-run TASS news agency reported.
During the visit, Shoigu announced 1,000 North Korean sappers and 5,000 military construction workers would be sent to Russia, to clear mines and “restore infrastructure destroyed by the occupiers” in the Kursk region, according to TASS.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has briefed lawmakers in Seoul that North Korea has begun selecting personnel for overseas deployment which could occur as early as July or August, according to remarks by lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun.
He highlighted Russia’s public announcement of another 6,000 North Korean mine clearers and military construction workers being sent. It is unclear if the NIS shares the Ukrainian intelligence assessment that the deployment could be as many as 30,000.
The site of what analysts say is an expanded Russian and North Korean military camp in Postoyalye Dvory, in Russia’s Kursk region, can be seen in a satellite image taken on 15 April, 2025.
The site shows evidence of long-term cooperation, including North Korean soldiers living in trenches with basic amenities and engaging in military training alongside Russian troops.
Recent videos and imagery indicate greater integration of North Korean forces into Russian military operations, particularly in the Kursk region.
CNN
