North Korea sends inexperienced troops to Ukraine

North Korean troops approaching Russia's front lines in Ukraine may not represent the best soldiers in Kim Jong Un's military.

Video footage and intelligence reports suggest these soldiers are mostly young - teenagers or in their early twenties and likely still undergoing military conscription, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

Analysts note that they appear relatively short and slight, which points to widespread malnutrition in impoverished North Korea.   Their training in special forces would have centered on missions like assassinations and infrastructure sabotage in the rugged terrain of South Korea, which contrasts sharply with the trench warfare currently taking place in the flatlands of the Ukrainian-Russian border.

These inexperienced troops have probably never been outside of North Korea, where the army relies on aging and outdated conventional military equipment.

“Mere cannon fodder mercenaries,” South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun told lawmakers, in an assessment of the troops. 

 Approximately 3,000 soldiers arrived in Russia this month, according to assessments from the US, South Korea, and Ukraine.

They were seen at various Russian military training facilities last week, with some already in Kursk, a Russian border region partially occupied by Ukraine.    

James JB Park, a former South Korean defence and national security official, suggested that Kim Jong Un, the 40-year-old dictator of North Korea, might be testing both internal and Kremlin reactions to this move by initially sending those considered relatively expendable. 

By December, South Korean officials estimate that North Korea might dispatch as many as 10,000 troops to Russia. While Kim frequently describes his military as the “strongest in the world,” North Korea has not been significantly involved in a major conflict since the Korean War from 1950 to 1953.

By Naila Huseynova