South Korean NIS Claims 12,000 North Korean Personnel Have Deployed to Support Russia’s War Effort

<p >South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has reported that North Korea is dispatching 12,000 personnel, including a special forces unit, to support Russia’s <a href=" target="_blank">ongoing war effort</a> in Ukraine. This follows a claim by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that “Russia is effectively planning to include North Korea in the full-scale war against Ukraine.” Western official sources have nevertheless refused to support Ukrainian assertions, with both Kiev and Seoul potentially having much to gain by exaggerating the extent of Pyongyang’s support for the Russian war effort as both seek to gain greater Western Bloc support. North Korea has made major arms transfers to Russia from 2022, with Russia in January 2024 confirmed to have begun <a href=" target="_blank">using Korean ballistic missiles </a>and rocket artillery in the Ukrainian theatre. Although a high possibility remains that Korean personnel have been deployed to support the use of complex equipment such as ballistic missile systems, such deployments do not require signifiant numbers of personnel and occur far behind the frontlines. </p><p ><img src=" title="North Korean Special Forces Simulate Beach Landing"></p><p >Although statements have been far from conclusive, the possibility of large scale deployments of North Korean personnel for frontline operations cannot be ruled out. Pyongyang would retain three major incentives for making such deployments, including the ability to increase Russian support for its own economy and defence sector in exchange for support, providing its frontline units with combat experience in one of the most highly contested ground theatres in the world, and setting back its Western adversaries which have made major deployments to the theatre. Personnel from NATO member states hostile to Pyongyang have played a central role in the Ukrainian war effort not only as advisors and logisticians, but also increasingly as <a href=" >frontline combatants</a>, with examples ranging from<a href=" > British Royal Marines deployed</a> for frontline combat operations from April 2022, to <a href=" >SAS advisors</a> supporting armoured offensives against Russian positions. Polish, English and other European languages have been widely spoken in multiple major conflict zones <a href=" >from Kursk</a> to <a href=" >Bakhmut</a>, as both contractors and <a href=" >volunteer units</a> from across NATO member states have played key roles in bolstering Ukraine’s war effort. Much like Russia, should North Korean forces be deployed they are expected to single out Western Bloc forces for particularly intensive attacks in the theatre. </p>