The first North Korean troops are expected to arrive in Russia’s Kursk region tomorrow to help defend it against Ukraine’s ongoing incursion, the head of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR) told The War Zone Tuesday. That information comes as Seoul is considering sending advisors and heavy weapons to Ukraine in response to Pyongyang’s deployment to Russia of upwards of 12,000 soldiers, including elite special operations units. “We are waiting for the first units tomorrow in the Kursk direction,” Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov told us. It is unclear at the moment how many or how they will be equipped. “We will see after a couple of days,” he added.Alarm about North Korean troop movements to Russia is growing in South Korea. After a meeting to assess the situation, South Korea’s presidential National Security Council said Pyongyang’s deployment poses a “significant security threat” to both South Korea and the international community and is a “blatant violation” of U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting military cooperation with North Korea,” the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reported on Tuesday.“If the illegal military cooperation between North Korea and Russia continues, (South Korea) will not stand by but respond firmly in collaboration with the international community,” Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo said, according to Yonhap. He warned of “phased measures” in response to the level of their military ties. “There is a possibility that personnel will be sent to Ukraine to monitor the tactics and combat capabilities of North Korean special forces dispatched in support of Russia,” Yonhap reported, citing a source. “If deployed, the team is expected to be composed of military personnel from intelligence units, who could analyze North Korean battlefield tactics or take part in interrogations of captured North Koreans.”There are also unconfirmed reports that North Korea has sent fighter pilots to Russia.A South Korean government official claimed last month that North Korea “dispatched fighter pilots to Vladivostok, a city in the Russian Far East, ahead of the first deployment of its ground troops on October 8,” Newsweek reported, citing TV Chosun. “This could relate to training on Russian combat aircraft supplied to North Korea, the report said. But it could not rule out that Russia, which has suffered from a shortage of pilots” during the all-out war, “had requested assistance from the North.”Training North Koreans to operate Russian jets, most likely its familiar Su-25 Frogfoot attack jets, would present a host of challenges including language barriers and doctrine, but it isn’t out of the question.
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