North Korea’s troop deployment strengthens military alliance with Russia

SEOUL:
North Korea’s decision to deploy thousands of troops to the Ukrainian front has strengthened Pyongyang’s controversial military alliance with Moscow, experts told AFP, and further entrenched Russia in its role in protecting the Korean Peninsula.

About 1,500 North Korean special forces soldiers are already in Russia and acclimatising themselves, with thousands more likely to leave soon, Seoul’s spy agency said on Friday, Pyongyang’s first such deployment abroad.

The move shows that the military agreement signed by North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, which included a mutual defence clause, was not just a sham.

“This sets up a framework where Russia’s intervention or military support will automatically follow if North Korea is attacked or faces a crisis,” Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told AFP.

Hong said the fact that North Korean troops would fight alongside Russia in Ukraine proves how “solid” the Putin-Kim deal really is.

And he added that a troop surge from Pyongyang could help Moscow “hold back occupied territories or assist in further territorial gains”.

North and South Korea remain technically at war, as the 1950 to 1953 conflict ended not with a peace treaty, but an armistice. But while Kim has built up a nuclear arsenal, Seoul has no nuclear weapons of its own.

The South is protected by the so-called US nuclear umbrella, and Seoul and Washington regularly hold large-scale joint military exercises, infuriating Pyongyang.

By sending troops to Russia, Kim is hoping to create a more integrated military barrier between North Korea and Russia like the US-South Korea alliance, potentially leading to a “significant change” in Korea’s security dynamics, Hong said.

‘Significant change’

Ukraine’s state-run Centre for Strategic Communication released a video on Friday allegedly showing North Korean soldiers at a Russian military camp preparing to join Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

In the footage, one of the soldiers appeared to say “move over” to his colleagues in a North Korean accent.

Seoul’s spy agency told AFP it was “inappropriate” for them to comment on materials released by another country’s government.

Experts said the deployment gives North Korea’s elite troops a chance to experience modern warfare, and to see how the country’s home-grown weapons – which Seoul has long accused Kim of sending to Russia – work on the battlefield.

Lee Sang-min, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, told AFP it could also be an attempt by Kim to boost his international stature and negotiating position ahead of next month’s US elections.

“One way to attract global attention by doing something scandalous is to send troops to support the war in Ukraine, which could prolong the conflict or turn it in Russia’s favor,” he said.

War economy

Vladimir Tikhonov, a professor of Korea studies at the University of Oslo, said that for Russia, the benefit of the North Korean deployment is clear.

“Russia’s main constraint is a shortage of both military and labor manpower, and North Korea has a huge unknown potential to reduce both,” he told AFP.

Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest point in years, with Kim insisting on Thursday that the country had abandoned the “improper idea of ​​reunification.”

Experts said Pyongyang could use Ukraine as a means to re-align its foreign policy.

By sending troops, North Korea is positioning itself as a supplier of arms, military aid and labor within the Russian war economy, according to analysts – potentially even bypassing its traditional ally, neighbor and main trading partner China.

“This means that Pyongyang will not be motivated to seek improved relations with Japan, South Korea and the United States,” Tikhonov said.

“This means that there will be a constant state of tension on the Korean Peninsula.”