North Korean troops fighting for Putin ‘killed in Ukraine’

Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Kim Jong-un after a signing ceremony in June
Speculation that Kim Jong-un would send his soldiers to fight in Ukraine for Vladimir Putin’s forces has been rife - Kristina Kormilitsyna/AFP

North Korean soldiers have probably been killed fighting for the Kremlin on the front lines in Ukraine, South Korea has said.

Kim Yong-hyun, South Korea’s defence minister, said reports that six North Korean officers were killed last week in a missile strike near Donetsk were “highly likely”.

He said: “We assess that the occurrence of casualties among North Korean officers and soldiers in Ukraine is highly likely.”

Speculation that Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, would send his soldiers to fight in Ukraine for Russia has been rife but this would be the first known evidence of them being stationed on or near the front line.

Analysts said the six officers may have been helping to manage supplies of North Korea’s missiles and artillery shells that Kim has been sending to the Kremlin for more than a year.

Both Ukraine and Russia have foreign volunteers fighting in their armies, but this would be a rare example of a foreign state ordering its soldiers to fight in the war.

Russian servicemen firing at Ukrainian positions
Russian servicemen firing at Ukrainian positions - SHUTTERSTOCK

In 2022, there were reports that soldiers from Syria, an ally of Russia, would be sent to Ukraine to fight for Vladimir Putin’s forces, but there has been no evidence that this happened.

South Korea’s defence minister said his government considered Russia and North Korea to have essentially agreed to a military alliance pact.

“The issue of deploying regular troops is highly likely due to the mutual agreements that resemble a military alliance between Russia and North Korea,” he said.

North Korean artillery shells and missiles have become a vital source of weapons for Russia.

In June, Putin travelled to North Korea in June for the first time since 2000 to sign a “comprehensive strategic partnership agreement” and to thank Kim personally for his support.

The chemistry between the two dictators was clear at their meeting: they laughed at each other’s jokes, chinked glasses of red wine as they toasted their future successes and drove around the grounds of a villa in Pyongyang together in a Russian luxury car that Putin had given to the dictator.

Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin drove around Pyongyang together in their recent meeting
Kim and Putin drove around Pyongyang together in their recent meeting - STR/AFP

Analysts have said that North Korean artillery shells are poor quality but are essential to the Kremlin because there are so many of them.

The shells helped Russia plug a shortage in the second half of last year and allowed its forces to push forward using costly mass infantry tactics over the past 12 months.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War said North Korea had delivered 4.8 million artillery shells to Russia by June, deliveries which it said had “enabled Russia to maintain a significant artillery advantage over Ukraine”, which has struggled to maintain supply lines.

In September, reports from Ukraine said North Korean missiles had also been fired at Ukrainian troops. There have also been reports from Russia that South Korean labour may be imported to fill gaps in Moscow’s labour force, created by the war in Ukraine.

Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul, said that after sending Russia weapons, it was a logical next step for Kim to send his soldiers to Ukraine.

“It’s crucial for North Korea to learn how to handle different weapons and gain real-world combat experience,” he said.

Kim, who inherited control of North Korea when his father died in 2011, has become such an important ally for the Kremlin that Putin dispatched Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of his security council, to Pyongyang in mid-September for “unspecified bilateral discussion”.

This fondness appears to be reciprocated by Kim. On Monday, he sent his personal congratulations to Putin on his 72nd birthday, calling him his “closest comrade”.