Holding back- North Korea sent troops to Russia and was dismissed as -damn-; audio files of private conversations between Russian troops were exposed_1
A North Korean soldier was last seen in April 2012 standing in front of the launch site for the Unha-3 rocket at Dongchang-ri. Recently, several countries confirmed that North Korea has sent troops to Russia. According to a report by CNN, the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Agency released intercepted audio files on the 25th, revealing concerns among Russian military officials regarding their command and the provision of ammunition and equipment to North Korean forces.
In these audio recordings, Russian troops spoke disparagingly about a unit referred to as “K Battalion” comprising North Korean soldiers. One Russian soldier was heard calling the North Koreans “damn Chinese.” Additionally, in the same audio clip, another Russian soldier described a comrade assigned to receive the North Korean troops, saying, “He just stood there, wide-eyed, looking like he was saying, ‘Damn it, he even came over to us and mentioned that he had no idea how to handle these people.’”
The Ukrainian Intelligence Agency reported that the audio was intercepted from a Russian military encrypted communications channel on the night of the 23rd. They analyzed the recordings and indicated that North Korean troops were scheduled to mobilize at a forward operating base in Russia’s Kursk region on the morning of the 24th. Earlier this year, Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack and captured parts of Kursk.
The recordings also revealed that for every 30 North Korean soldiers, there would be one translator and three senior Russian officers. Russian military personnel expressed dissatisfaction with this arrangement, with one soldier commenting, “What I don’t understand is how we’re assigning three senior officers for every 30 North Korean troops. Where are we supposed to find that many people? We still need to move our own guys around.”
In another recording, a Russian soldier mentioned, “Tomorrow, 77 battalion commanders are coming, including commanding officers and deputy commanders, along with others.”
On the 25th, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that he received a report from the Ukrainian Commander about the deployment of North Korean troops. He stated, “Intelligence shows that Russian forces will deploy the first group of North Korean troops in the combat area on the 27th and 28th. This is clearly an escalation by the Russian military, different from the various false narratives circulating recently in Kazan.”
Initially, the Kremlin denied any deployment of North Korean forces, but President Vladimir Putin did not refute these claims during the BRICS summit in Kazan on the 24th. In response, North Korea stated through state media on the 25th that any deployment of troops to Russia to assist with the conflict in Ukraine would be in accordance with international law, though they did not explicitly confirm such actions.
