Claims have emerged that North Korean troops, which coordinated to drive out Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region, are preparing to enter Ukrainian territory.
On the 16th (local time), Andriy Kovalienko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, claimed via Telegram that "Russia plans to use North Korean troops in the war on Ukrainian territory."
According to Kovalienko, Russia intends to claim that the regions are Russian territory after sending North Korean troops into Ukraine.
Kovalienko added, "North Korean troops will wear Russian military uniforms, just as they did in Kursk."
In the first year of the war, in September 2022, Russia forcibly held referendums on annexation in four occupied Ukrainian regions: ▲Donetsk, ▲Luhansk, ▲Zaporizhzhia, and ▲Kherson, indicating a high possibility of deploying North Korean troops in these territories.
The international community does not recognize Russia's annexation of the occupied Ukrainian territories.
North Korea signed a "comprehensive strategic partnership treaty" with Russia in June of last year and deployed over 10,000 elite troops to Russia in October of the same year. Currently, they are only conducting operations in the Kursk region, and their role has become ambiguous as operations in Kursk began to reach completion last August.
The Times of London analyzed that if North Korea sends its troops into Ukrainian territory, it could be an attempt to elicit support from Russia for its nuclear program.