Key Points and Summary – North Korea has deployed 20% of Kim Jong-un’s elite “personal reserve,” amounting to 11,000 troops, to fight for Russia in Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian defense briefing reported by the Kyiv Independent on Friday.
-This marks a significant escalation in the deepening military alliance between Moscow and Pyongyang.
-The deployment comes after previous North Korean troop commitments to the Kursk region have reportedly resulted in staggering casualties, with a British intelligence report from mid-June estimating over 6,000 killed or wounded.
-In addition to troops, North Korea is providing vast amounts of artillery shells, playing a key role in sustaining Russia’s war effort.
North Korea Sent Top Troops to Russia
Back in April, North Korea confirmed that it had sent troops to Russia to fight in the war in Ukraine.
Per the BBC, which cited state news agency KCNA, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un had sent soldiers to “completely liberate” the Kursk region.
Days earlier, Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov praised the “heroism” of North Korean troops fighting in the war, which represented the first official acknowledgement that North Korea was involved in the war at all, although they are believed to have been operating in the region as far back as the fall of 2024.
Russia had denied, prior to that, that North Korea soldiers were participating in the war.
However, unnamed Western officials had told the BBC that they believed “at least 1,000 of the 11,000 troops sent from North Korea had been killed over three months.”
Now, there are reports that an elite unit from North Korea is fighting in the war.
“Personal Reserve”
The Kyiv Independent reported Friday, citing a Ukrainian defense briefing, that North Korea has deployed 20 percent of Kim Jong-un’s elite “personal reserve” to fight Ukraine in Russia. The unit includes 11,000 “elite troops.”
“These are soldiers specially selected based on physical, psychological, and other criteria,” Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said during a press briefing Saturday. “These units have already suffered significant losses.”
The report also said that North Korea has already sent “four known rotations” of units.
The Independent also cited a British intelligence report from mid-June, which suggested North Korea has “likely sustained more than 6,000 casualties in Russia since the deployment of troops to Kursk Oblast in fall 2024.”
Strategic Partners
Russia and North Korea agreed to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement” in the summer of 2024, with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim signing it, during the Russian president’s visit to North Korea.
The agreement included both a pledge for each to aid the other in the event of an attack, and also “cooperation in the economic, political, and military spheres.”
“I have no doubt that (the treaty) will become a driving force of a new multipolar world. Time has changed. The status of (North Korea) and the Russian Federation in the global geopolitical structure has also changed,” Kim said at the time, as reported by The Kyiv Independent.
North Korea and the Soviet Union were allies during the Cold War, with the U.S.S.R. backing North Korea during the Korean War in the 1950s.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, North Korea was one of the only countries to recognize its sovereignty over the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
“A Key Role”
How important is the role North Korea is playing in Russia’s war? The Atlantic Council looked at that question this week.
According to that report, North Korea has sent “thousands of additional construction workers and engineers” to Russia, in addition to soldiers, although they’re described as “military construction workers” and combat engineers. Those plans were agreed to at a June meeting between Kim and Sergei Shoigu, described as “the former Russian Defense Minister who now serves as secretary of the country’s Security Council.”
“This is the latest step in an ambitious defense sector partnership between the two countries that has taken shape over the past three years. Since the early months of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, North Korea has provided the Kremlin with extensive military supplies,” the Atlantic Council’s Olivia Yanchik writes.
“More recently, this cooperation has expanded further with Pyongyang sending thousands of soldiers to participate directly in the war against Ukraine. Russia and North Korea signed a strategic partnership treaty in summer 2024.”
That cooperation has had “a significant impact on the battlefield,” while Reuters reported this spring that the North Koreans were “providing more than half of all artillery shells being used by the Russian military in Ukraine.”
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
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