North Korea has dispatched pilots who can fly Russian warplanes to join the war in Ukraine, Newsweek reported on Oct. 22, citing South Korean television network TV Chosun.
Moscow is planning to involve Pyongyang in the full-scale war against Ukraine in the coming months, with around 10,000 North Korean soldiers being prepared to join the Russian army, according to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said earlier in October that the first group of 2,600 soldiers would be deployed to Russia's Kursk Oblast, where Ukraine began a cross-border incursion in August and still holds significant swathes of territory.
North Korea denied sending troops to join Russia's war in Ukraine, calling the recent reports "groundless rumors."
A government official in South Korea claimed that North Korea had sent fighter pilots to Vladivostok, a city in Russia's Far East, ahead of the first deployment of its ground troops on Oct. 8, according to TV Chosun.
The report said that this move could mean further training of pilots on Russian combat aircraft.
If the report is confirmed, Russia will become the first country where North Korean pilots will be stationed outside their country since the Vietnam War. They also previously participated in combat operations in Syria and Egypt during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
A Western official told the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 15 that 10,000 North Korean soldiers had already been sent to Russia. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s HUR military intelligence service, put the number at 11,000 and said they would be "ready to fight" by Nov. 1.
A video purportedly showing them at a military training camp inside Russia has also surfaced online.
Moscow and Pyongyang have deepened military cooperation as Russia seeks arms and other support in its full-scale war against Ukraine.
North Korea has also been supplying Russia with ballistic missiles and vast quantities of artillery shells.
Chris York
