Tens of thousands of North Korean soldiers could gain valuable battlefield experience in the coming year as they deploy to the front lines of Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to Kyiv’s top diplomat in Seoul.
Dmytro Ponomarenko told the Weekly Chosen newspaper that South Korea should respond by lifting its embargo on the provision of arms to Ukraine. He also called on the West to allow long-range strikes into Russian territory—a longtime ask of President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s government.
Ponomarenko’s comments, published on Sunday, came shortly before the United States reportedly authorized Ukraine’s armed forces to launch U.S.-supplied ATACMS ballistic missiles at targets inside Russia’s Kursk Oblast, bordering Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.
Russia’s far-eastern Kursk region has been partially captured by Ukraine in a surprise raid since August. It is where thousands of North Korean troops have been sent to fight alongside the Russian army, according to Western intelligence assessments, which place the counteroffensive force at roughly 50,000 strong.
The U.S. State Department confirmed last week that North Korean troops had begun engaging in combat operations against Ukrainian forces. Earlier this month, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said Pyongyang’s direct military involvement would make North Korean soldiers “legitimate military targets.”
In a separate interview with Voice of America’s Korean service on Saturday, the Ukrainian diplomat said North Korean troop numbers in Kursk could rise to 15,000 from the current estimate of 11,000. A similar number could be deployed to the Russian-occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, according to Ponomarenko.
In Kursk, North Korea has established a command and control node run by seven generals, Ponomarenko said. Ukraine believes rotational deployments by Pyongyang could see some 100,000 North Korean soldiers become battle-hardened veterans.
North Korean forces with experience of “modern warfare” would pose a danger to security on the Korean Peninsula, he said. “Our security is interconnected.”
The Korean People’s Army under the command of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has a standing force of 1.3 million personnel, smaller only than the active-duty militaries of China and the U.S.—2 million and 1.4 million respectively.
In September, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to increase the Russian armed forces to 1.5 million active service members. The order, when fully realized, would see the Kremlin wield the world’s second-largest military force.
The Russia-Ukraine war, now in its third winter, had become a “global conflict” because of North Korea’s participation, Ponomarenko told the Weekly Chosen.
In return for sending elite special operations forces, Kim likely is receiving Russian money as well as technical assistance for the development of key military technologies including intercontinental ballistic missiles, the official said.
North Korea’s embassy in Beijing and Russia‘s Foreign Ministry did not return multiple requests for comment.
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