Zelenskyy says Russia seeks 30,000 extra North Korean troops for Ukraine war
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- Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia is seeking an additional 30,000 North Korean troops, with staging preparations underway in Russia's Voronezh region near the Ukrainian border since June.
- North Korea is also preparing to transfer additional ballistic missile launchers to Russia, per Zelenskyy's Saturday social media post.
- Russia and North Korea signed a military assistance treaty in 2024, and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui reaffirmed Pyongyang's support for Moscow's war during a visit this week.
- South Korea estimates approximately 2,000 North Korean troops have been killed since their deployment to help Russia fight off Ukraine's counter-offensive in the Kursk region in 2024.
- In exchange for military aid, North Korea has received cash, military technology, and food and energy commodities to help it circumvent international sanctions over its nuclear programme.
- Zelenskyy warned that North Korea is gaining real combat experience and weapons improvements through the Ukraine war, calling it "a threat to everyone in Asia who is within range of North Korean missiles."
Why it matters: An additional 30,000 troops would more than tenfold the North Korean contingent already fighting in Kursk, and Zelenskyy's own framing — explicitly — is that Russia is paying Pyongyang in battlefield data to refine weapons aimed at Japan and South Korea, not just Ukraine.
