US says 10,000 North Korean soldiers now at Ukraine border

The North Korean military is designed to fight on the Korean Peninsula and not to be deployed abroad,

Mark Cancian, senior adviser to the international security program at the US think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told DW

Kim is not stupid. He knows that Putin needs both the ammunition and the troops from North Korea. So why not ask for a higher price?"

Cha said

It would be different if North Korea retained command of its deployed soldiers, either alone or together with Russia,

said Kress

Europe has traditionally been North Korea's gateway to the West and was seen by Pyongyang as more 'neutral' than the United States,

he added

The axis of evil is active. Who can guarantee that North Korean soldiers won't be deployed in the Baltic States in a few years' time or that the Chinese won't buy them in to attack Taiwan?"

she said

Ukraine will effectively be forced to fight against North Korea in Europe,

he said

If Russia had sole command, the actions of these soldiers would be solely attributable to Russia under international law,

he said

We believe that many [of the North Koreans] will desert their posts to defect, most likely to try and reach South Korea,

said the Ukrainian commander

Russian dogs rushed us to attack," but that the Ukrainians had "covered us in artillery and drones".

One severely wounded survivor who is now being treated in a field hospital said

Choe Son-huinorth korean Foreign Minister

Kim Jong-un gave us orders that we should invariably and powerfully support and provide assistance to the Russian army their holy war."

Choe Son Hui, North Korea's foreign minister who met Kremlin’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov in Moscow today, said

There were about 40 of us but all are dead. I am left alone. I have nothing to lose,

he said in a video shared on X by pro-Ukrainian user Jürgen Nauditt

This is concerning because it portends in the future that if Russian technology does end up in North Korea's direction, then (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un will be able to accelerate the scope and sophistication of his missile capabilities,

he told CNA’s East Asia Tonight programme

If North Korean troops are actually deployed, it means they would gain modern combat experience from the Ukraine war, which ultimately poses an indirect threat to South Korea,

he said

This just clarifies, in some sense, that the Indo Pacific and Euro Atlantic theatres are linked in some way,

said Richey

China has a dilemma. Up until now, China has been much more important to North Korea than Russia has,

he noted

The North Koreans are stopgap. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has been losing... huge numbers of troops on the ground,

he said

Although North Korean troops are undergoing training in Russian military facilities in the Far East, differences in language, culture, training, and warfighting doctrine, could diminish the effectiveness of North Korean forces until they are better integrated with Russian units,

Yeo said

North Korean troops will give Russia an immediate boost by sheer virtue of increasing Russian manpower on the front line."

Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution's Center for Asia Policy Studies, told Newsweek

North Korean troops are conditioned with unwavering loyalty to their leadership and a unique psychological resilience cultivated by the regime," designed to fit a sense of "absolute sacrifice for the state" into Pyongyang's personnel

said Park

They may be useful in pushing Ukrainian troops out of the areas of the Kursk region,

added Yeo