North Korean troops in 2015.
Wikimedia Commons
The Kremlin has been secretly transporting North Korean troops toward the Ukrainian-held salient in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, if intercepted Russian radio communications are any indication.
The intercepted chatter, released by the Ukrainian intelligence directorate on Sunday and translated by Estonian analyst WarTranslated, seems to confirm what Ukrainian sources have been saying for days now—that thousands of North Korean soldiers have begun arriving along the front line in western Russia.
The intercepted conversation between two Russian military officials concerned the driver of a KAMAZ truck named Andrey Sveridenko, who got stopped while driving into Kursk. On Aug. 6, a strong Ukrainian force invaded Kursk, quickly occupying hundreds of square miles.
Russian military police “detained some KAMAZ on a highway” in Kursk Oblast, one of the officials on the radio exchange explained to his counterpart.
The truck’s plate number, 497, “is a civilian number,” the first official said. The vehicle had “no combat assignment,” so the military police “got concerned.”
“I’ll sort it out,” the other official replied. He reported back that Sveridenko was “helping to transfer North Koreans.”
“Ah, so that’s why [he’s] without [a] combat assignment,” the first official said. In other words, the deployment of Pyongyang’s forces to Kursk is off the books—unsurprisingly, considering the Kremlin has described reports of North Korean troops in Russia as “fake news.”
According to WarTranslated, Sveridenko’s consignment of North Korean soldiers was destined for the Russian navy’s 810th Naval Infantry Brigade, which has been trying to roll back Ukrainian advances on the eastern edge of the Kursk salient around the village of Russkaya Konopelka. Ukrainian drones and artillery have held off the Russians, so far.
Marine units such as the 810th Naval Infantry Brigade are notorious for their brutality and poor discipline. On Oct. 10, the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade—deployed on western edge of the Kursk Salient—captured, stripped and executed nine Ukrainian drone operators.
Ever since then, four elite Ukrainian brigades have been deliberately hunting down and ambushing 155th Naval Infantry Brigade platoons … and taking no prisoners.
If the Ukrainian intelligence directorate’s radio intercept is indicative of a wider move of North Korean forces to Kursk, it’s probably only a matter of time before there’s direct evidence of North Koreans in battle. The first proof might even be a video of North Koreans under attack by Ukrainian drones.