On October 23, during a press briefing, the US National Security Council [NSC]which reports to the White House, confirmed that 3,000 North Korean troops had just been sent to Russia, after being transported by boat from the Wonsan region to Vladivostok.
These North Korean soldiers “then continued to several Russian military training sites in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training,” the NCS added. “We do not yet know whether they will be engaged in combat alongside the Russian army, but it is a high probability, which is very worrying,” he concluded.
Since then, the North Korean contingent deployed in Russia has grown to include between 10,000 and 12,000 soldiers, partly from the XI Corps of the Korean People's Army. [APC]composed of special forces.
In the past, North Korea has already sent groups of specialists and/or military instructors abroad, notably to North Vietnam, Egypt [durant la guerre du Kippour]in Libya and, more recently, in Syria. But this deployment of the APC in Russia, which comes in addition to the deliveries of arms and ammunition [missiles balistiques et obus de 152 mm] to the Russian army, is historic in its scale.
It remains to be seen the motivations of Pyongyang which, as a reminder, signed a mutual defense pact with Moscow last June. On November 12, citing Ukrainian and American military sources, the New York Times reported that 50,000 Russian and North Korean soldiers were redeploying to the Kursk region, partially occupied by the Ukrainian army since August 6. A counter-offensive could be launched there in the “coming days”, according to the American newspaper.
Regardless, the North Korean contingent did not arrive in Russia empty-handed. At least, that's what a photograph distributed via Russian channels of the Telegram application suggests. This shows at least two North Korean M-1978/1989 Koksan type self-propelled howitzers on a railway track. According to open source intelligence, the photo was taken in Krasnoyarsk [centre de la Russie].
The M-1978/1989 Koksan is an artillery system mounted on the chassis of a Chinese Type 59 tank or on that of a Russian ATS-59 tracked artillery tractor. The range of its 170 mm gun [un calibre que seule l’APC utilise] ranges from 40 to 60 km, depending on the ammunition used. Its rate of fire would be very low, around two shots per minute. Its particularity is that it does not have enough space to transport its entire crew. [dont les servants] and its ammunition. He must also be accompanied by another armored vehicle when traveling.
Why did North Korea send such artillery to Russia?
The first hypothesis is that it would be a question of compensating Russian losses in this area [au moins 881 canons ont été détruits / endommagés / capturés depuis le début de la guerre en Ukraine, dont 31 2S7(M) Pion/Malka de 203 mm et 55 2S4 Tyulpan de 240 mm. La seconde est que ces M-1978/1989 Koksan seront mis en œuvre par le contingent nord-coréen déployé en Russie… et probablement bientôt engagé dans la région de Koursk. Mais dans un cas comme dans l’autre, leur utilisation posera des problèmes de logistique en raison de leur calibre, lequel n’est pas utilisé par l’armée russe.
