Experts say footage released by Ukraine shows soldiers speaking in northern dialect and was likely filmed in Far East
A new video released by Ukraine allegedly shows North Korean soldiers receiving Russian uniforms at a military base in the Russian Far East, the latest evidence that the DPRK has already sent troops to fight in Ukraine.
The suspected DPRK soldiers stand in long lines to receive sacks with uniforms, provisions and other equipment in the video provided to NK News by Kyiv’s Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security (SPRAVDI).
The footage captures brief conversations between the soldiers and supervising officers, who appear to use phrases from the northern dialect of the Korean language like “pack it up” and “stand closer together”
The suspected soldiers also received a form in Russian and Korean to specify what size they need for uniforms, hats and other gear, SPRAVDI told NK News. According to a photo provided by SPRAVDI, the form asks the soldiers to indicate their “North Korean size” and match it with the Russian equivalent.
Yang Uk, a military analyst at the Seoul-based Asan Institute, confirmed that the soldiers in the SPRAVDI video are speaking in the North Korean dialect.
“Of course they are North Koreans in Russian uniforms,” the expert said, assessing that their pronunciation sounds characteristic of DPRK citizens. “And their faces and expressions are typical North Korean.”
Shin Seung-ki, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, told NK News that the soldiers in the video appear to be much smaller in stature compared to South Korean soldiers, stating that this is likely due to “long-standing economic hardship and lack of adequate nutrition” in the DPRK.
“But North Korea’s special forces are one of Kim Jong Un’s elite units, with better training and standards compared to other units,” he said. “Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that North Korean special forces would perform better than Russia’s fresh recruits.”
Retired ROK Lt. Gen. Chun In-bum pointed out that the group of Asian soldiers do appear to “sound North Korean” but he cautioned that it is hard to definitely state their affiliation from the video.
Further confirmation about their activities is needed to draw definite conclusions, he said.
Seoul has claimed that Russia seeks to disguise North Korean troops as residents of Siberian regions, presumably to maintain a degree of plausible deniability about DPRK deployments.
The spotted soldiers appear to be located at the Sergievsky Training Ground, north of the Far Eastern city of Ussuriysk, according to SPRAVDI.
Joost Oliemans, an expert on the North Korean military, told NK News that there is “little doubt” that the video was filmed in the Russian Far East and that it “shows the same group of recruits geolocated to the training base” in an earlier video released by Russian Telegram channels.
Ussuriysk is one of four cities identified by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) as locations where DPRK troops are currently undergoing training — along with Vladivostok, Khabarovsk and Blagoveschensk — before deployment to the frontline in Ukraine.
The city also hosts what satellite imagery expert Jacob Bogle identified as the base of Russia’s 83rd Guards Airborne Brigade, which appeared in a satellite image purporting to show North Korean troop deployments that the NIS released last week.
The NIS previously claimed that North Korea started dispatching special forces units to Russia’s Far East between Oct. 8-15, with four Russian naval vessels reportedly transporting some 1,500 soldiers.
The release of the video comes as Kyiv has repeatedly accused North Korea of supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine by supplying artillery munitions, missiles and military personnel.
The Kremlin has brushed off claims about North Korean soldiers fighting in Ukraine as a hoax, while calling reports about the suspected troop deployment “contradictory.”
Video: https://dzen.ru/video/watch/671ab74145ffc313576e16e4