News from the South Korean TV Chosung according to North Korea would send engineer brigades to help Russia, which would serve in the Donetsk region. Explained in more detail: referring to government sources it is assumed, that these brigades would come to Russia on behalf of a North Korean construction company, Namgang Construction. According to a North Korean diplomat who defected in 2019, the company is a military construction company that is part of the North Korean armed forces. There are a total of 10 construction or engineer brigades in the Korean People’s Army, which are combined into an engineer corps.
The news upset the mood, and there was an immediate reaction to it in the United States. Pentagon press chief Pat Ryder said he thought, that if Pyongyang decides to send troops to Ukraine on Russia’s side, its forces would be used as cannon fodder. “If I were the North Korean military leader, I would question my decision to send my forces as cannon fodder in an illegal war once morest Ukraine. And we’ve seen the toll it takes on Russian forces,” Ryder said.
The case is also the Institute for Study of War examined it, but came to the conclusion that the reported press report cannot be confirmed, as no troop movements were visible on the territory of North Korea, and according to reports by North Korean officials and other sources, there is no visible sign of Pyongyang actually sending troops to Russia . Regarding Ryder’s statement, they added that the spokesman also questioned a supposed North Korean decision to send “cannon-filling forces” to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
At present, all involved have either specifically denied or refused to confirm reports that North Korea may be sending engineering forces to support Russia in occupied Ukraine.
Why did the question arise?
Vladimir Putin on June 18-19 went in North Korea. The main events of the visit took place on June 19, the main topics were the strengthening of trade relations and the deepening of cooperation in agriculture, energy and security. The cooperation between the two countries was compiled by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Russia and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will provide a framework.
The signed strategic partnership agreement, on the other hand, covered assistance for defense purposes as well. This basically means support, but does not presuppose going to war. The clause on defense or security cooperation caused a lot of concern in the region, and the very next day – on June 20 – Putin was asked in Hanoi whether North Korean participation in the war in Ukraine was expected, to which he replied as follows reacted:
as for the possibility of somehow using each other’s abilities in this conflict, we are not asking for it from anyone, and no one has offered it to us.
Then he addedthat the security and defense cooperation clause of the concluded strategic agreement cannot be applied to the war in Ukraine, because according to him, Ukraine committed aggression once morest the separatist people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, to which Russia reacted, but at that time they were not yet (illegally) included in the Russian Federation bond.
What can we talk regarding in the case of North Korean construction soldiers?
This is not the first time that North Korea’s involvement in the Russian-Ukrainian war has come up. First in August 2022 they spoke that Pyongyang signaled to Moscow through diplomatic channels that it might send up to 100,000 volunteers to help Russia. The news was denied at the time, and later, in 2023 – following Kim Jong-un’s visit to Russia – the involvement of North Korean troops arose once more, which Putin then considered foolish namedbecause according to him, around 300,000 volunteers had signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense by that time.
It is therefore not surprising that the question came up once more following Vladimir Putin visited North Korea. Such speculations may have some practical basis. The previously mentioned Namgang Construction is part of the armed forces and there are more he also took up a job in Middle Eastern countries such as Kuwait. The workers there are all of military rank, from privates to high-ranking officers; thus, although they are practically simple construction workers, they are still legally soldiers. Each such worker makes around 800-1000 dollars per month look for, and the state receives a significant part of this income. However, the UN imposed sanctions on North Korea in 2019, so work visas issued to North Korean citizens had to be revoked in Russia as well.
It is very important for Pyongyang to get foreign currency, and such jobs were a good opportunity. During Putin’s visit to Pyongyang raised itthat the UN sanctions should be reviewed. In this case, North Korean workers might come to Russia. A possible Russian construction contract with the involvement of intermediary companies according to estimates it might bring Pyongyang as much as $115 million in annual revenue. According to Ukrainian experts, these construction workers, who are supposed to be sent to Russia, might be used to build ditches, underground fortifications and tunnels.
If the issue of employment visas is revised on a bilateral basis, and North Korean construction workers do indeed go to Russia as a result, their functions will hardly exceed those in Kuwait and Qatar in the Middle East. When they were there, there was little news regarding Pyongyang employing soldiers.
The author is a researcher at the Eurasian Center of János Neumann University and a senior researcher at the Hungarian Foreign Affairs Institute.
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