Kyiv (CNN) — A new wave of North Korean troops, already numbering 8,500 in Russia, contains a drone unit that could attack targets inside Ukraine, according to a senior Ukrainian intelligence official.
North Korea, who signed a NATO-style mutual defense pact with Russia two years ago, has been sending troops to assist Moscow’s military operations since late 2024 and may be asked to contribute up to 50,000 more when President Vladimir Putin meets his counterpart Kim Jong Un in September, according to Major General Vadym Skibitskiy, Deputy Head of Ukrainian Defense Intelligence.
Such a move would mark a significant expansion of Moscow and Pyongyang’s military cooperation and comes as Ukraine is running painfully short of air defenses. It is another sign that Russia’s resources are stretched thin and welcoming to assistance, despite public statements of their economic resilience and military-industrial capacity.
Skibitskiy said the North Korean troops already deployed are spread mostly in Russia’s Kursk region and include a thousand engineers and deminers. They also comprise 400 drone operators, many of whom have gained experience either in or from previous North Korean deployments, and whose drones will likely be used to both survey and attack targets inside Ukraine.
North Korea’s deepening ties with Russia are troubling many in the NATO alliance, particularly after President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that military drills with South Korea would be scaled down so as not to antagonize Kim Jong Un – the reclusive North Korean leader whom Trump is eager to meet with again.
Kim’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, denied claims that tens of thousands more North Koreans would soon join Russia’s efforts, calling it a “groundless self-fabricated scenario.”
Ukrainian intelligence suggests North Korean troops sent to Russia will not fight on Ukrainian territory, Skibitskiy said, but will reinforce Russia’s rear positions, freeing up Russian troops for assaults inside Ukraine.
Although Ukraine first warned that North Korean troops were using attack drones on their territory last October, this is the first indication the new wave of troops will have this capability. On top of Putin’s likely request for more troops, some 25,000 North Koreans have so far been deployed or rotated through Russia’s military, Skibitskiy added.
The first North Korean deployment began in the Kursk region in October 2024, to repel a Ukrainian incursion, the first on Russian soil since the Nazis. North Korea remained silent for months about its initial deployment of troops to help Russia’s war machine, only confirming its soldiers were fighting against Ukraine in April 2025. An estimated 10,000 North Koreans were deployed and suffered significant casualties, having used suicidal tactics to rush Ukrainian positions en masse.
North Korea’s willingness to sustain such losses reflects the reach of Russia’s global alliances and Moscow’s need for extra manpower. The wounded returned to North Korea able to teach their colleagues about drone warfare and the new reality of the tech-dominated frontlines.
Highlighting the strength of the two countries’ ties, Russian state media has shown images of North Korean troops in training inside Russia over the past year, and Kim Jong Un opened a memorial to North Korea’s Ukraine dead in April.
Skibitskiy also highlighted the extent to which North Korea is helping with missile technology for Russia’s offensive.
He said that before August last year, at least 150 KN 23 or KN 24 ballistic missiles had been sent by North Korea for use inside Ukraine, and another 120 were promised. Such weapons are proving increasingly difficult for Kyiv to shoot down, with supplies of US Patriot interceptors – one of the few systems capable of taking down ballistic missiles pretty much exhausted.
Forty of those have been delivered, Skibitskiy said, and two are suspected to have been used in Radushne, in the Dnipro Region, on 30 July in an attack that killed at least four children from the same family.
About 90 personnel have been sent to Voronzeh to assist with missile launches, he said, with ten large cargo flights, possibly containing missiles from North Korea, landing in the Baltimore aerodrome in Voronezh area.
Skibitskiy said more modern versions of the missiles had an extended range of 800km, but often landed 15-19km off target. He said North Korea was using the launches into Ukraine to improve their targeting and payload.
In return for supplying Russia with manpower and munitions, North Korea has asked for the Russian S400 air defence system and has already received a Pantsir 1 surface to air missile launcher, Skibitskiy said
The-CNN-Wire
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