In October, U.S. intelligence confirmed that approximately 12,000 North Korean troops, drawn in part from the Korean People's Army's XI Corps [APC]had reached Russia after being transported by boat from the Wonsan region to Vladivostok.
Later, the New York Times reported that Moscow was preparing a counter-offensive in the Kursk region, partially occupied by the Ukrainian army since last August, by mobilizing 50,000 Russian and North Korean troops.
As a reminder, in June, Moscow and Pyongyang signed a “comprehensive partnership treaty”, with a clause providing for mutual assistance in the event of “aggression” by either party. However, the ratification of this text more or less coincided with the arrival of this North Korean contingent in Russia.
Since then, many rumors have been circulating… And, despite the “transparency” of the battlefield, no conclusive image of North Korean soldiers in combat has been produced.
However, a video was posted on social networks on December 14. Supposed to show an assault by the North Korean army, in the open, in the Kursk region, it is of too poor quality to draw a definitive conclusion.
However, on the same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky affirmed, for the first time, that a “significant” number of North Korean soldiers were taking part in the fighting in the Kursk region. Which would be a first in seventy years for the Korean People's Army.
“Early data indicates that Russia has begun using significant numbers of North Korean troops in its assaults. These troops are integrated into combined units and deployed in operations in the Kursk region,” declared Mr. Zelensky.
“Moscow dragged another state into this war, to an unprecedented degree. And if that's not escalation, then what is it? It is Putin who is taking steps to expand and prolong this war, pushing back even further the possibility of peace,” the Ukrainian president accused before warning of the risk of new problems in Asia given that the “ Russia trains North Korea in modern warfare techniques.
Anyway, this December 16, the General Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry [GUR] claimed that “at least thirty North Korean soldiers” had been injured or killed over the past two days during fighting near the villages of Vorojba and Martynovka in Russia's Kursk region. Again, this information cannot be independently confirmed.
For the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, the joint maneuvers between Russian and North Korean troops, which have not been able to exercise together until now, are not without problems several challenges, starting with the language barrier.
“Poor integration and persistent communication problems between Russian and North Korean forces will likely continue to cause friction in Russian military operations in Kursk in the short term,” he said.
The fact remains that, according to the latest assessment of the situation published by the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, the Ukrainian army is currently in difficulty: it has had to give up further ground in the Kursk region while, in the Donbass, the Russian forces are reportedly managed to establish a bridgehead in the Kupiansk sectors and crossed the Oskil, while continuing their progress towards Pokrovsk, Velika Novosilka and Andriivka, in the oblasts of Donetsk and Zaporizhia.
Photo : Felipe Fidelis Tobias – Domaine public
