Nearly 11,000 North Korean troops deployed in Russia’s Kursk region – Ukraine defense intel

That’s according to the head of Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency, HUR, Kyrylo Budanov, who spoke with The War Zone.

The top intelligence official drew attention to the visit of Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu to North Korea, where, among other things, he agreed on the beginning of work of so-called labor migrants on the territory of Russia in order to partially replace the labor migrants from Central Asia that they consider as not stable for their state and vulnerable to recruitment by our special services and Western ones.

“But there is a big probability that people among this labor migrant, they will start to sign contracts with the Ministry of Defense of Russia. And it wouldn’t be the warriors from North Korea. It would be Russian warriors, but of North Korean nationality,” Budanov said.

When asked how many labor migrants he thought would travel from the DPRK to Russia, Budanov replied that the agreement was concluded just recently, so Ukraine is not yet aware of specific numbers.

“And we would like to answer this question. We need to confirm the exact number that will come to Russia,” he said.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said at a meeting in Pyongyang with Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu that the DPRK would continue to unconditionally support Russia in the war against Ukraine.12