Inexperienced, poorly trained and underfed: the North Korean troops heading to Ukraine
Kim Jong-un says his army is the ‘strongest in the world’ but they are vulnerable to illness and none have seen combat before
Depending on whom you ask, they are the boost that Russian forces need to make a significant breakthrough in Ukraine, or they are simple cannon fodder, destined for repatriation in body bags.
After weeks of speculation, Nato and the Pentagon have confirmed that about 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia, with most massing near Ukraine’s border in Kursk, where the Kremlin’s forces have struggled to repel a Ukrainian incursion.
The North Koreans came under Ukrainian artillery fire during “small-scale” fighting on Tuesday, said Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, in the first official confirmation of contact between the two forces.
It is too early to say how the Russian-North Korean “blood alliance” will change the dynamics of the conflict. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said Russia had been training them to use artillery, drones and “basic infantry operations, including trench clearing, indicating that they fully intend to use these forces in frontline operations”.
But not one of the young men drafted from Kim Jong-un’s regular army of approximately 1 million – the “strongest in the world”, according to Kim – has seen combat. And they will be fighting on unfamiliar territory, with new weapons and in uniforms bearing the flag of a country – Russia – they know little about.
While their arrival relieves pressure on Russia to draft more of its own citizens, with the US estimating that more than 500,000 Russians have been killed or wounded since the war started in February 2022 – experts believe the military dividends for the Kremlin will be limited.
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First Clash With N. Koreans – Video:
