North Korea is sending more soldiers to fight Ukraine. Russia’s Security Council Secretary and former Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, announced that 1,000 North Korean combat engineers, and 5,000 military builders are heading to the Kursk region. Moscow says the North Korean troops will be clearing mines and restoring damaged infrastructure in Kursk.
But Ukraine believes that the North Korean soldiers will be joining the Russians on the battlefield. And there will be more than Russia has announced. Kyiv says that Pyongyang will be sending an additional 25,000-30,000 troops to the front lines. To aid in the war effort, not reconstruction.
North Korea has already sent about 10,000-15,000 soldiers to fight alongside the Russians. The troops were dispatched last November, but Moscow and Pyongyang only confirmed it this April. And according to South Korea, the North Koreans have suffered heavy casualties.
On Sunday, for the first time, North Korea’s Supreme Leader, Kim Jong Un, publicly acknowledged North Korean casualties. He did this during an official visit by Russia’s culture minister, Olga Lyubimova. A grand event was held during her visit. It was to celebrate one year of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Russia and North Korea.
The Partnership treaty was signed on June 18 last year, when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea for the first time since the year 2000. The treaty is what paved the way for North Korean troop deployment in the Russia-Ukraine war.
On Sunday, Russian artists gave a traditional performance at the East Pyongyang Grand Theatre, to celebrate the strengthening ties between Moscow and Pyongyang. North Korean artists held a performance of their own to reciprocate. But towards the end of the revelry, the mood turned distinctly sombre.
Pictures showing North Korean soldiers on the front line came up on the big screen behind the stage. They were displayed while a North Korean artist performed a powerful song. And then, for the first time, photos of Kim Jong Un receiving caskets were shown to the public. The grand event was being broadcast to the public by North Korean state media. The cameras zoomed in on North Koreans crying for the troops. Even Kim looked teary-eyed and stoic. It was his first public acknowledgement of the losses his country had suffered. And he chose to make this acknowledgement during a visit by a Russian minister. Was this a calculated move? A bid to extract more benefits and concessions from Russia, in exchange for the soldiers?
There has been plenty of speculation about what Kim gets out of the deal. For all the military assistance he has sent Russia so far, including soldiers, artillery shells, and missiles. Reports say that Kim is getting oil and food to prop up North Korea’s faltering economy. He is supposedly receiving Russian military expertise, to help him advance North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes. Reports even say that Moscow is helping Pyongyang build submarines that are capable of firing nuclear missiles.
Russia has also helped North Korea undermine international sanctions that were crushing its economy. Last year, weeks before Russia and North Korea signed their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, Moscow did Pyongyang a favour at the United Nations. Russia used its veto to abolish a UN panel that monitored North Korea’s compliance with international sanctions.
Moscow has been helping Pyongyang evade sanctions for years. That’s how North Korea’s leadership always seems to have things it technically shouldn’t, like luxury vehicles. But last year, Russia dropped all pretenses by blocking the monitoring of sanctions. This is thought to have helped North Korea tremendously. So, the North Korean regime has been reaping the rewards of helping Russia for over a year now.
But Kim's big reveal of troop casualties on Sunday suggests two new developments. The first is that he wants to prepare his people for more troop deployments. He’s drumming up patriotic sentiment to that effect. The second development is that Kim is using the latest troop deployment as leverage. He is trying to pressure the Russian leadership into giving even more support to his government. It has been a win-win situation for both Kim and Putin so far. But will the Russian President be willing to give even more aid to his North Korean counterpart? Or is Kim pushing his luck?
