Troops from North Korea to boost Russia's Ukraine forces

NEW: North Korea preparing to send up to 50,000 troops to boost Russia's forces in Ukraine, intelligence agencies report.

Up to fifty thousand North Korean troops could be headed to Russia. That's what Ukrainian and international intelligence agencies are reporting, on top of the fourteen thousand or so Pyongyang already sent to defend Kursk in late 2024. North Korea has even opened a museum honouring soldiers who fought for Russia, and you can see it here.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns the combat experience North Korea is banking could threaten not just Ukraine but the whole Asia Pacific. Kim Jong Un's ballistic missiles, the KN-23 and KN-24, are already being fired from Russian soil.

Analysts are split on what it changes. Experts told DW the new troops would likely guard Russia's border regions, freeing up around fifteen thousand Russian soldiers for the front near Kharkiv and Sumy. Others doubt the numbers entirely, since Moscow still recruits about a thousand contract soldiers a day.

Either way, a nuclear armed state is renting out its army, and learning modern war in real time.

This is Sara White, reporting for HIT.

Source Read the original reporting at dw.com