Media: North Korea to send over 20 000 workers to Russian drone factory

North Korea will send workers to a Russian drone factory to gain experience, and Russia will increase drone production.

This was reported by the Japanese television channel NHK, citing diplomatic sources in the West and Russia.

According to media reports, the plant is located in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in the Russian republic of Tatarstan. It is planned to send 25 000 workers from North Korea there.

This announcement was preceded by the second talks in a month between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu on June 17 in Pyongyang. After the meeting, the latter stated that North Korea had promised to send a thousand sappers and 5 thousand military construction workers to Russia, ostensibly to restore the Kursk region.

The Union of Russia and the DPRK

Russia is using North Korean soldiers in the war with Ukraine — the first of them arrived at the front in October 2024, when it was about 12 thousand people. And in March 2025, North Korea sent another 3 thousand soldiers.

At first, both sides denied this, but on April 26 of this year, Russia officially acknowledged for the first time the participation of North Korean troops in the war against Ukraine. Two days later, North Korea also confirmed that its troops were participating in Russiaʼs full-scale war against Ukraine, including fighting on the Kursk Bulge.

South Korean lawmakers, citing intelligence, stated that as of April, out of 15 000 fighters, the DPRK had lost approximately 4,700 soldiers, 600 of them dead.

In addition to manpower, the DPRK provides Russia with weapons. As early as January 4, 2024, Western media wrote that Russia had received a batch of ballistic missiles from the DPRK (several dozen) and launchers for them. On the same day, the US officially stated that Russia had short-range ballistic missiles from the DPRK and had launched them over Ukraine.

The head of GUR Kyrylo Budanov said in January 2025 that North Korea plans to send another 150 ballistic missiles to Russia this year.

South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won Sik said in an interview with Bloomberg on June 14 that North Korea had sent containers to Russia that could hold nearly 5 million artillery shells, but Moscow needed more.

Earlier, in April, Reuters reported that North Korea had transferred up to 6 million shells to Russia. Without them, Russia would not have been able to wage war so actively. At some points last year, the majority of shells used by individual Russian units were North Korean. In some places, it was 100%. The publication noted that this was Russiaʼs most significant direct military assistance in the war.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.