Ukraine War Update: Thousands of North Koreans Flood Into Russia

North Koreans have been flooding into Russia, data from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) revealed, amid reports of North Korean soldiers joining Russia's war against Ukraine.

Earlier this week, it was confirmed by the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation that Ukrainian forces had engaged with North Korean soldiers for the first time. Ukrainian military intelligence reported that 12,000 soldiers, 500 officers and three generals from North Korea had been deployed to Russia.

According to data on the FSB border website, which was found by independent Russian media outlet Mediazona, unprecedented numbers of North Koreans entered Russia in the third quarter of 2024.

The data shows that between July and September, 3,765 North Koreans came to Russia to "study." In comparison, before the pandemic, there were only 3,200 North Koreans in Russia. However, the number of education quotas for North Koreans in Russia is low. According to the Russian Ministry of Education, only 130 students from North Korea are currently studying in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang on June 19, 2024. Data has revealed over 3,000 North Koreans entered Russia to study between July and September 2024. KRISTINA KORMILITSYNA//POOL/AFP via Getty Images

On Monday, amid reports that North Koreans had joined Russian forces, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters there were 10,000 North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region that were preparing to join Moscow's fight.

In late October, the South Korean military intelligence said troops from North Korea had been sent to the Kursk region.

North Korea has not denied the claims. Instead, Pyongyang said any North Korean troops sent to Russia would be in line with international law.

"If there is such a thing that the world media is talking about, I think it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law. There will evidently exist forces which want to describe it as illegal one, I think," North Korea's vice foreign minister, Kim Jong Gyu, previously said in statement.

Ukrainian forces launched an offensive into the Kursk region in August 2024 as part of their military pushback to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.

Speaking to Newsweek earlier this week on the impact of North Korean troops in Russia, Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for Asia Policy Studies, said: "North Korean troops will give Russia an immediate boost by sheer virtue of increasing Russian manpower on the front line."

Yeo added that North Korean troops may prove useful to Russia by helping to push Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk region.

However, South Korean intelligence warned that North Korean troops might be challenged by their lack of familiarity with the military procedure of Russia's war.

"The war is being carried out in the form of a drone combat, but North Korean troops have not been supplied with drones and have not been trained accordingly, so we anticipate considerable damage," the South Korean intelligence agency said.