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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday that Russia was preparing to station more North Korean troops on its territory and had received more ballistic missiles from Pyongyang.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly warned of deepening military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang, often while appealing for more Western air-defence supplies.
“This is the first time they cannot wage war without supplements from North Korea,” he said in his nightly address, referring to Russian forces.
“They are now preparing to deploy an additional contingent of Koreans on their territory. They have received, just imagine, additional ballistic missiles from North Korea,” he added.
The Ukrainian leader did not present any evidence or a timeframe supporting the claim.
But he urged Japan and South Korea to provide air defence aid, saying it was needed to curb Pyongyang’s force, which is growing stronger on the experience it is gaining while helping Moscow.
At the weekend, Zelenskyy said a decision had been taken for 30,000-50,000 North Koreans to be deployed on Russian soil. He did not explain how he obtained the figures.
North Korea has become one of Russia’s closest military partners since Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a mutual defence pact in June 2024.
Moscow used the North Korean troops in a counteroffensive later that year that pushed Ukrainian forces out of the border Kursk region.
Kursk offensive
About 600 North Korean troops were killed fighting for Russia against Ukrainian forces, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers last year.
North Korea has suffered some 4,700 casualties, including injuries and deaths, the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) told a parliamentary committee.
About 2,000 injured soldiers were repatriated to North Korea by air or train between January and March, according to the NIS.
The dead soldiers were cremated in Russia before their remains were sent back home, the intelligence agency said.
The assessment came after Pyongyang confirmed for the first time that it had sent troops to help Russia recapture parts of the Kursk region, which Ukraine took control of in a surprise incursion.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s economy was showing signs of recovery as Pyongyang deepened trade and diplomatic ties with Russia and China, South Korea’s unification ministry said in a report in April.
Rigid socialist planning and high military spending undermined growth in North Korea for years, as have sweeping international sanctions aimed at scuppering its development of nuclear weapons.
China has long been the diplomatically isolated country’s main economic backer, though Pyongyang has also drawn closer to Moscow since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Those relationships are now driving an improved economic outlook, with the North appearing to have “moved beyond a period of contraction” and “entered a phase of gradual recovery,” according to the South Korean ministry.
Analysts said the North was also receiving economic and military technology assistance from Russia in return for sending troops and ammunition to help it fight Ukraine.
Additional sources • AP, AFP
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