Seoul warns North Korea could send more troops to Russia by August

North Korea is likely preparing to dispatch additional troops to Russia as early as July or August, South Korea’s intelligence agency told lawmakers on June 26, pointing to deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

In a closed-door briefing to the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it had observed signs that Pyongyang is in the process of selecting personnel for a new deployment. The forecast is based in part on recent activity inside North Korea and a June 17 visit to Pyongyang by Sergei Shoigu, head of Russia’s Security Council.

Shoigu met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during the trip, and the two sides reportedly agreed to dispatch 6,000 North Korean military engineers and construction personnel to Russia’s Kursk region, where Moscow has been reinforcing its defenses amid continued fighting in Ukraine.

This would mark the second known deployment of North Korean personnel in support of Russia’s war effort. In November 2024, Pyongyang sent an estimated 11,000 troops following a similar visit by Shoigu in October. Given the roughly one-month interval between that agreement and the first dispatch, the NIS said a new deployment could occur by late summer.

The agency also believes North Korea has sent more than 10 million artillery shells to Russia, along with missiles and long-range weapons systems. In return, Pyongyang is thought to have received military and technical support, including air defense systems, jamming equipment, satellite launch vehicle engines, drones, and missile guidance upgrades.

The weapons and personnel provided by North Korea are playing a “meaningful role” in Russia’s battlefield operations, especially in contested regions like Kursk, the NIS told lawmakers. Its analysis estimates that Russia now controls 81 percent of the four Ukrainian territories it claims—Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Luhansk.

The NIS also briefed lawmakers on rising tensions in the Middle East, warning that despite a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Iran just 12 days after their latest clashes, the situation remains fragile. “Hostilities between the two sides remain high, and the risk of renewed conflict is still present,” the agency said.

In response, the NIS said it is stepping up monitoring of the Strait of Hormuz, key oil shipping routes, and major regional ports. It is also preparing contingency measures to safeguard South Korean nationals in the region.