For North Korea and Russia, troop deployment disclosure offers advantages

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For North Korea and Russia, troop deployment disclosure offers advantages

Published: 01 May. 2025, 18:52 Updated: 01 May. 2025, 19:07

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

A Russian firearms instructor, left, gives instructions to North Korean soldiers who were involved in Russian military operations in the Kursk region in this undated footage shared by the Russian state media on April 28. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

[NEWS ANALYSIS]

After months of stonewalling on claims that North Korean soldiers are participating in Russia’s war against Ukraine, Pyongyang and Moscow acknowledged their deployment as the Kremlin announced that it had reclaimed the Kursk region from Kyiv's counteroffensive earlier this week.

The involvement of the North Korean troops was first mentioned by Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian general staff, during his meeting on Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, while the North’s announcement was carried by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday.

The KCNA report notably broke the regime’s previous silence on the presence of its troops in Russia, which observers believed was intended to suppress potential unrest among soldiers’ families.

The official confirmation from Pyongyang and Moscow also came as U.S. President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican and suggested that Russian leader Vladimir Putin might be “tapping [him] along” with ongoing ceasefire talks.

The disclosure by Russian and North Korean authorities raises several questions: Why now, and what does it signify?

Why now?

Experts say that the timing of the North Korean and Russian announcements is closely tied to Moscow’s claims of retaking the Kursk region from Ukrainian forces.

“North Korean forces participated in operations to help Russia regain control of the area,” noted Lee Sang-soo, an associate fellow at the European Center for North Korea Studies at the University of Vienna and one of the founders of Strategic Linkages consultancy based in Stockholm. “As a result, the alleged recapture of the region allows North Korean authorities to frame their troops’ mission as a success.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a videoconference meeting with Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, at the Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow, Russia, on April 26. [EPA/YONHAP]

According to Hong Min, a senior fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification, the disclosure also lends Russia an advantage in negotiations with the United States and Ukraine.

“Acknowledging the presence of North Korean troops before the recapture of the Kursk region would have been too politically burdensome for Moscow and Pyongyang,” he said. “By changing the facts on the ground, Russia now no longer has to worry about the area being subject to negotiations like the territory it currently occupies in eastern Ukraine.”

Hong also says the disclosure could affect talks about North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine, which is in talks with Seoul to send them to South Korea.

“Now, Russia will find it more difficult to ignore the North Korean regime’s stance on prisoners of war and other issues,” he says.

Naoko Aoki, a political scientist at the Virginia-based think tank RAND, not only agrees that the ongoing talks likely influenced Pyongyang and Moscow’s announcements, but also says that the North would have faced great difficulty concealing its soldiers’ participation in Russia’s war in the long run.

“It’s difficult to assess how much domestic bottom-up pressure there was in North Korea in terms of its soldiers in Russia, but not acknowledging their presence makes it difficult to deal with those who were killed in the war, or those who come back eventually,” she says, adding that the recent admission “helps with that.”

What does it signify?

The disclosure by North Korea and Russia also allows them to justify their alliance and tout their accomplishments, according to experts.

Lee says the announcements “serve to support the Russian claim that the war against Ukraine is defensive in nature and concerned with protecting its territory, while enabling the North to present the deployment as part of a legitimate military agreement, and not an act of aggression.”

“By framing the deployment as both legitimate and victorious, the North can now present it as a political success and incorporate it into its broader narrative of national strength,” Lee says.

Hong similarly observes that the North’s disclosure “allows the regime to claim a military victory abroad, which it can in turn frame as a national triumph and achievement by its leader, Kim Jong-un.”

Aoki, on the other hand, says the announcement protects morale inside North Korea.

“Even if the general public did not know about the developments, there are those in the military ranks, particularly among elites, who would. Morale is important, and you need to think about ways to deal with those who have been affected by the war.”

However, Hong also notes that the two regimes have slightly divergent reasons for publicly acknowledging their cooperation.

“For North Korea, the disclosure underscores its contribution to the Russian war effort and highlights its intent to claim the political, military and diplomatic fruits of its support. Further, the North can cement its status as Russia’s ally and partner with this announcement,” he says.

For Russia, in contrast, the disclosure “shows that it now cannot disregard the North’s wishes” on the international stage and will likely keep the door open for “more military and technical support from Moscow to Pyongyang,” according to Hong.

Pak Yong-il, deputy director of the Korean People's Army General Political Bureau, center, shakes hand with a Russian military official in this photo released by the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency on April 29. The KCNA reported that a KPA delegation led by Pak is attending the 3rd International Anti-Fascist Forum in Russia. [YONHAP]

According to Aoki, the announcement could also send a message to Russia and North Korea’s adversaries.

"Russia may have wanted to use this acknowledgment as leverage, to show that it can continue with the war. I find it interesting that we are seeing videos and photos of North Korean soldiers from Russian sources, too,” she says.

How will Trump respond?

Though Trump administration officials have recently hinted that Washington is seeking to revive talks with Pyongyang, the U.S. State Department also said after the disclosure that it believes North Korea bears “responsibility” for prolonging Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Observers believe that the U.S. response to the recent disclosure will remain on a separate track from its pursuit of North Korean denuclearization for the time being.

“The Trump administration has not yet formed a coherent approach to North Korea,” says Hong. “As their first priority is ending the fighting in Ukraine, they will put out different messages for now.”

However, Lee says that the State Department is “signaling that any future talks with North Korea would require Pyongyang to stop its troop deployment to Russia. In other words, halting military support for Russia may become a condition for restarting dialogue.”

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]