< Ukraine says North Korea is sending soldiers to help Russia in the war

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

Ukraine says its military intelligence has evidence that North Korea isn't just sending weapons to Russia to assist in the war on Ukraine.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

Yeah, that's right. North Korea may also be sending soldiers. Now, the Kremlin is denying the claim, even as Russia receives large shipments of ammunition from North Korea, some of which has been produced just this year.

FADEL: With me now is NPR's Joanna Kakissis in Kyiv. Thanks for being here.

JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: Thanks for having me.

FADEL: So let's start with Ukraine's claim that North Korea is sending soldiers to Russia. How credible is this claim?

KAKISSIS: Well, the Ukrainians say it's credible. Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told Ukrainians all about it in a video address earlier this week. And we spoke to Andriy Kovalenko from Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council. He was briefed about the developments by military intelligence. He told us Russia, whom he calls the enemy, is training North Korean military personnel on Russian territory but are keeping them inside Russia for now.

ANDRIY KOVALENKO: (Through interpreter) As of now, the enemy's plans are to reinforce conscripts and border guards in the border regions of Russia. But it's too early to say whether they will be deployed directly on the territory of Ukraine.

KAKISSIS: Now, the Kremlin denies this is all happening and calls it, quote, "an information hoax."

FADEL: OK, so Russia saying this isn't true. But Russia and North Korea do have a military alliance, basically, right? So what does that involve?

KAKISSIS: So Leila, that means that the two countries can coordinate to, quote, "eliminate an immediate threat of armed aggression." South Korea says North Korea has been sending thousands of shipments of munitions to Russia in violation of sanctions. There's also evidence that North Korea is making missiles to order for Russia, and those missiles are being used to attack Ukraine.

We spoke about this with Damien Spleeters of Conflict Armament Research, which is a U.K.-based organization that tracks the supply of weapons and ammunition in armed conflicts. And Spleeters says his group discovered the remnants of four North Korean-manufactured ballistic missiles known as the Hwasong-11 in Ukraine. First of all, he says this seems to confirm an ongoing weapons transfer.

DAMIEN SPLEETERS: The second thing that this finding illustrates is that there's a very tight window between production, transfer and use.

KAKISSIS: He says the missile component found was likely made around March of this year and that the Russians used the missile in August.

FADEL: OK, so what's the connection between these missiles and the North Korean military personnel that Ukraine says are in Russia?

KAKISSIS: So Kovalenko from Ukraine's National Defense and Security Council says North Korea is likely sending military engineers to monitor these missiles. There's evidence that some of these engineers may have been killed in a Ukrainian strike in occupied eastern Ukraine. Spleeters says these engineers could be assessing how these missiles are launching.

SPLEETERS: It would make sense for people involved in the production of those missiles to be close to where they are being used and assess how effective they are in order to make improvements to those missiles.

KAKISSIS: Now, Ukrainian officials fear that troops could follow these military engineers, who are likely officers. And if that happens, they say it could lead to a Russian breakthrough on the front line.

FADEL: So does this change anything for the West's calculation? Does it now force the West to get more involved in defending Ukraine?

KAKISSIS: Well, Zelenskyy sure hopes so, and so do many Ukrainians who question the West's commitment to Ukraine as Russia continues its war machine, despite sanctions. President Zelenskyy keeps telling the West, we will lose this war unless there's a change in strategy. And he, as well as several military analysts, say Western partners give Ukraine just enough support to survive but not to win. And because this is a war of attrition, Russia has the advantage. It has a bigger military arsenal, and it has, like, four times the population of Ukraine. It also has North Korean weapons and maybe even North Korean soldiers at its disposal in the future.

FADEL: NPR's Joanna Kakissis. Thank you, Joanna.

KAKISSIS: You're welcome.

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