Are North Korean troops fighting for Russia against Ukraine? | News about the Russia-Ukraine war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech to parliament on Wednesday that North Korea is de facto involved in the war in Ukraine and is on Russia's side. He said Ukrainian intelligence discovered that Pyongyang was transferring not only weapons but also soldiers to Moscow.

The deepening military ties between Russia and North Korea have been condemned by the United States, South Korea and Japan. The three countries announced on Wednesday a new team to monitor arms sanctions against North Korea.

How much does North Korea help Russia, how deep is its military cooperation and to what extent does Moscow need Pyongyang's help?

Is North Korea sending soldiers to Russia?

According to Ukraine and South Korea, yes.

On October 8, Seoul's Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun told South Korean politicians that it was “highly likely” that North Korean officers had been killed in a Ukrainian attack near Donetsk on October 3.

And on Friday, October 18, South Korea's National Intelligence Service said that Russian naval vessels had moved 1,500 North Korean soldiers to the Russian Pacific port city of Vladivostok between October 8 and October 13.

However, Russia has rejected claims that North Korean personnel are in Russia.

“This seems to be another fake news story,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier this month.

While Ukraine and South Korea have not publicly released any evidence to support their claims, experts believe a North Korean military presence in Ukraine is plausible.

“We cannot rule out the possibility,” Edward Howell, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Oxford, told Al Jazeera. “We know that Russia needs workers.”

Howell added that even if North Korea does not send foot soldiers, “we cannot rule out the possibility that North Korea may send military engineers as well as personnel to help monitor and supervise the use of North Korean weapons – the quantity of which, while numerous, varies.” Quality – in Ukraine”.

Howell's research focuses on the politics and international relations of North Korea, the Korean Peninsula and East Asia.

Zelensky had previously accused North Korea in a video speech on Sunday of sending military personnel to fight for Russia against Ukraine.

In his video address on Sunday, Zelensky said: “This is no longer just about the transfer of weapons. It’s actually about handing over people from North Korea to the occupying forces.”

“We are seeing a growing alliance between Russia and regimes like North Korea,” he warned.

Zelensky called on allies to step up their response to Russia, particularly with a view to lifting restrictions on Ukraine's use of long-range missiles to penetrate deep into Russian territory.

“When we talk about giving Ukraine greater long-range capabilities and more critical supplies for our armed forces, we are not just talking about a list of military equipment. The point is to increase the pressure on the aggressor – pressure that will be greater than Russia can handle. And it’s about preventing an even bigger war,” he said.

The United States has expressed concern about reports of a North Korean military presence in Ukraine – but has not independently raised the allegation against Pyongyang itself.

Gen. Charles Flynn, the U.S. Army's Asia-Pacific commander, said at an event in Washington that North Korean personnel involved in the conflict would allow Pyongyang to provide real-time feedback on its weapons for the first time receive.

“This kind of feedback from a real battlefield to North Korea to be able to make adjustments to its weapons, its ammunition, its capabilities and even its people — is very concerning to me,” he said during a speech at the Center for a New American Security on Tuesday.

What is the defense pact between North Korea and Russia?

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who rarely travels abroad, visited Russia in September 2023 and invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit North Korea.

In June, Putin made his first state visit to North Korea in 24 years and Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defense pact. Although the exact text of this pact has not been made public, the pact contains a mutual assistance clause calling on the two countries to provide military assistance if either of them is attacked.

On June 23, the US and its regional allies South Korea and Japan issued a joint statement posted on the US State Department website expressing “serious concerns” about the pact.

Since then, Ukrainian troops carried out an incursion into the Russian city of Kursk on August 6, which the Russians viewed as potentially constituting an attack, triggering the assistance clause in the agreement with North Korea.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula escalated on Tuesday as North Korea blew up stretches of road near the South Korean border.

Also on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked by reporters whether the mutual assistance clause meant that Russia and North Korea could be drawn into the Ukraine war and the conflict on the Korean Peninsula, respectively. Peskov did not answer the question, only saying that the wording of the contract was “quite clear” and did not require clarification.

He told reporters that the pact “implies truly strategic, deep cooperation in all areas, including security.”

Has North Korea supplied Russia with weapons?

Again, the US, Ukraine and South Korea say this, while the Kremlin and Pyongyang deny it.

On October 9, the Ukrainian army said it had attacked a Russian arsenal, including weapons sent to Russia from North Korea. The army added that the drone strike on the Bryansk border region was aimed at creating logistical difficulties for Russia and limiting its offensive capabilities.

In the June 23 joint statement, the United States, South Korea and Japan said they condemn deepening military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, including “ongoing arms transfers from the DPRK to Russia that prolong the suffering of the Ukrainian people.”

On February 27, then-South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik told reporters that North Korea had sent about 6,700 containers containing millions of munitions to Russia since September 2023 in exchange for food and raw materials for weapons production.

In January, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said intelligence agencies had determined that Russia had used at least one North Korean-provided weapon in Ukraine on December 30, 2023. The weapon landed in an open field in the Zaporizhia region, Kirby said. He said additional weapons provided by North Korea were used on January 2.

In April, Reuters news agency reported that United Nations sanctions monitors had told the UN Security Council that debris from a rocket that hit the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on January 2 was proven to have come from a North Korean Hwasong-11 series ballistic missile . This is a violation of the arms embargo against North Korea.

North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs, and those measures have been tightened over the years.

In March, Russia vetoed the renewal of a UN panel of experts that monitors North Korea's compliance with sanctions. Although the sanctions remain in place, the surveillance force does not.

Why are military relations between Moscow and Pyongyang deepening?

International relations lecturer Howell told Al Jazeera that the relationship was based on a “largely transactional” need.

After Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it faced global isolation and “North Korea was able to provide the goods Putin wanted in return for getting what it needed.”

Howell said that with the signing of the defense pact, a “cash-for-arms” relationship had been established. “North Korea provided artillery, which soon expanded to include ballistic missiles, and in return Russia provided food, cash and, most importantly, assistance with military technology.” Advanced military technology was critical to North Korea, Howell explained, “there “Kim Jong Un’s ultimate goal continues to be for North Korea to be recognized as a de facto nuclear state.”

In addition to material weapons, Pyongyang also receives Moscow's “unwavering support” in the UN Security Council, Howell said. “So Pyongyang can get away scot-free if it decides to bolster its nuclear and missile programs through tests and launches, which we know is North Korea’s intention.”