North Korea has sent about 5,000 military construction workers to Russia since September, as expected, “to rebuild infrastructure,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing South Korea’s intelligence service (NIS).
The data was released after an NIS briefing by South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kwen. He said there are also nearly 10,000 North Korean soldiers stationed near the Russia-Ukraine border, where they are performing “security duties,” as well as “an additional 1,000 engineers have been deployed to clear landmines.”
In September, South Korea’s intelligence agency said it believed North Korea had lost about two thousand troops it had sent to Russia to fight in the war against Ukraine, according to its data.
Since last October, North Korea has sent about 13,000 of its troops to Russia, according to intelligence reports. They participated in battles mainly in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops entered in August 2024. Several North Koreans were captured by the Ukrainian armed forces.
UK intelligence noted on 15 June that North Korean forces likely suffered more than six thousand total personnel losses in combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, which was more than half of the approximately 11,000 DPRK troops initially deployed there.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in a report in July that Russia and North Korea appear to be trying to use more covert ways to create pathways, particularly through labour migration, through which DPRK nationals can enter the Russian army.
The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Group, which includes 11 countries, released a report in late May indicating that North Korea has supplied Russia with more than 20,000 containers of munitions since September 2023, thus facilitating Russian strikes in Ukraine, particularly against critical infrastructure.
Pyongyang and Moscow, which ratified the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty in November 2024, deny the arms shipments, but in April the DPRK confirmed the participation of North Korean troops in combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region.