North Korean troops gain battlefield experience in Russia, Zelensky says

US and South Korea incorporate battlefield lessons into joint exercise

North Korea’s reported deployment has become part of U.S.-South Korean military planning. U.S. Forces Korea spokesman Col. Ryan Donald said the allies are accounting for lessons that North Korean soldiers learned while fighting in Ukraine.

“DPRK soldiers have deployed and fought in Ukraine and they’ve taken those lessons they learned there and brought them back to North Korea,” Donald said at a press briefing. “That changes the DPRK capability and our training accounts for that threat.”

The United States and South Korea are incorporating the threat into an upcoming major summer joint military exercise, officials said Monday.

South Korea’s intelligence agency says North Korea has sent munitions and roughly 15,000 troops to support Russian forces in the Kursk region. The agency estimates that about 2,000 of those troops have been killed.

Zelensky said Sunday that North Korea was preparing to deploy an additional 30,000 to 50,000 personnel to Russia. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry later declined to confirm that estimate.

The Ukrainian president said North Korea’s military support for Russia is giving its forces battlefield experience and improving their capabilities. He said the experience could increase the danger to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Zelensky also said North Korea had supplied Moscow with additional ballistic missiles. He called for closer cooperation between Seoul and Kyiv, including South Korean air defense systems.

South Korea has maintained a policy of providing humanitarian and nonlethal assistance to Ukraine while declining to directly supply lethal weapons. Foreign Ministry spokesman Park Doo-soon said the government considers North Korea-Russia military cooperation directly connected to South Korea’s security and in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Park declined to comment on diplomatic discussions about potential South Korean defense assistance to Ukraine. He said Seoul’s provision of military equipment to other countries follows domestic laws and policies.

“We have provided support to Ukraine in various fields, including energy, infrastructure, health, medical care, and education, and we plan to continue reviewing measures for the restoration of peace and reconstruction in Ukraine,” Park said.