Zelenskyy: NKorean Troop Contingent in Russia 'May Grow to 100,000'

Volodymyr Zelenskyyukrainian President

While some European leaders think about some elections or something like this … Putin is focused on winning this war. He will not stop on his own. The more time he has, the worse the conditions become,

Zelenskyy said

ISW has repeatedly observed efforts by Russian authorities to delay highly unpopular involuntary reserve call-ups,

ISW analysts wrote

The deployment of roughly 100,000 North Korean personnel would only replace Russian losses for less than three months,

the think-tank wrote

Such a limited deployment would also fail to address Russia's broader shortages of millions of workers due to demographic crises and the war and the resulting mid- to long-term shortcomings in Russian defense industrial base operations,

it added

Volodymyr Zelenskyyukrainian President

Now, Putin has brought 11,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine's borders. This contingent may grow to 100,000,

Zelenskyy said in a virtual address to the European Parliament

It is deeply regrettable that, in an attempt to maintain its dictatorship, North Korea is disregarding the lives of its people and turning young North Koreans into 'cannon fodder,'

said Yoon

The scale of deployed North Korean troops is being closely watched,

said Yoon

The compensation that North Korea will receive [from Russia] in return for its provision of military personnel and arms will likely be used to target us through provocations and threats,

Yoon added

We are concerned that North Korea will accumulate combat experience, secure actual operational data for its weaponry, acquire funding for nuclear and missile development through Russia's economic support, and potentially receive assistance from Russia to advance military technology, as well as modernize its conventional weapons,

Yoon said

The Republic of Korea is coordinating with its allies, committed to providing the support that Ukraine requires to secure a just and lasting peace,

the ambassador said, referring to South Korea by its official title

We would consider supplying weapons for defensive purposes as part of the step-by-step scenarios, and if it seems they are going too far, we might also consider offensive use,

a South Korean presidential official said in October

Many of the soldiers will become fatalities and unable to use any money earned,

he said, though Kim

Perhaps only a small amount or even nothing" will go to the soldiers themselves

Bennett said

I suspect that money coming from Russia is going directly to the party and then on to the Kim family,

Bruce W Bennett, a defense researcher and North Korea specialist at RAND, told Business Insider by email

They won't be compensated,

he said in an interview with Radio Free Europe, ... adding that

He ardently called upon all the participants to go all out for bringing about substantial and fundamental improvement in improving their capabilities for fighting an actual war,

KCNA said

It will be individuals at first, but more like as time passes, I think there'll be like a larger number of group defections, including officers."

He said