Yonhap: North Korea preparing to send additional troops and weapons to Russia

North Korea may soon deploy additional troops to Russia, as well as weapons, including kamikaze drones.

This was reported by the South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing the South Korean military.

"A comprehensive intelligence assessment shows that the DPRK is preparing to rotate or increase the number of troops in Russia, while supplying 240-millimeter rocket launchers and 170-millimeter self-propelled artillery mounts," South Koreaʼs Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

There are signs that Pyongyang is beginning to manufacture and supply kamikaze drones, which the committee explained as part of the countryʼs efforts to gain practical experience in warfare and modernize its own weapons system.

A month earlier, North Korean media reported that leader Kim Jong-un had overseen the testing of various types of such drones and called for their mass production.

Despite increased military cooperation with Moscow, no specific provocations from the DPRK have been detected so far. Meanwhile, Pyongyang is preparing for a key political event — a plenary meeting of the party at the end of the year. So Seoul does not rule out that North Korea may resort to provocations — for example, launching a medium-range ballistic missile with a hypersonic warhead.

"As North Korea focuses on supporting Russia next year, it is unlikely to provoke conflicts that could create a new front in the war," Yonhap writes.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea believes that in 2025, Pyongyang will continue provocations in the "gray zone", such as launching garbage balloons and disrupting GPS.

Participation of North Korean military in the war in Ukraine

Ukrainian intelligence reported on October 24 that the first soldiers from the DPRK had already arrived at the front in the Kursk region. There are approximately 12,000 soldiers, including 500 officers and three generals.

According to sources in the American newspaper The New York Times, Russia has assembled a group of 50,000 soldiers for an offensive in the Kursk region. The North Koreans are being trained in artillery strikes, basic infantry tactics and, most importantly, trench clearing, American officials say. This means that at least some of the North Korean soldiers will be used in frontal attacks on Ukrainian positions.

On December 14, Ukraine received confirmation that the Russians had begun using a “significant number” of soldiers from the DPRK in assault operations. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, on December 14-15, units of the DPRK army lost at least 30 soldiers killed and wounded, and three more went missing.

On December 19, it became known that at least 100 North Korean soldiers were killed and another thousand were wounded in fighting in the Kursk region of Russia.