North Korea Promises to Send Troops and Workers to Support Russia in Ukraine

redstate.com

North Korea has promised to send Korean People’s Army engineers to support Russian forces in Occupied Donetsk. The North Korean military is the fourth largest in the world and the world’s largest if one includes active, reserve, and paramilitary forces. This promise follows Russian President Vladimir Putin’s highly publicized trip to North Korea last week.

In response to that Pyongyang announced early this week that it will be sending troops in the form of a military engineering unit to support Russian forces on the ground in the Donetsk region. The troops are expected to arrive on the battlefield as soon as next month.

The DPRK has already supplied almost two million rounds of artillery ammunition, rockets for Russian multiple launch rocket systems and, it is alleged, ballistic missiles to support Putin’s forces since the two leaders met in Russia in September. The active participation of North Korean combat troops raises the specter of escalation to the conflict, especially as commentators think it will not go well for Pyongyang’s sappers on the battlefield.