The war in Ukraine, which has been going on for months, is also draining the resources of the Russian army. On Russian television, in response to reports that Pyongyang might send 100,000 troops to support Russian soldiers in Ukraine, anchorman Igor Korochenko said that manpower for reconstruction was also needed.
According to a report by NK News, Pyongyang confirmed a plan to send workers to rebuild occupied Ukraine.
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Estimates of Russian casualties since the invasion began on Feb. 24 differ. Ukrainian President Zelensky claimed in a speech in late July that about 40,000 Russians had died. By comparison, U.S. and British estimates put the death toll at about 15,000 and the wounded at two to three times that number, according to a report by The Economist.
Today on Russian state TV, military pundit Igor Korotchenko is saying how great it would be for "North Korean volunteers" to come to Donbas, not only to help rebuild cities destroyed in the war, but also to fight alongside Russia pic.twitter.com/oMO94YMcWO
— Francis Scarr (@francis_scarr) August 4, 2022
On the Ukrainian side, things don’t look much better in terms of transparency. Little is heard from Russia itself about its own casualties. The official figures there are also massively embellished. However, it can be assumed that the losses on the Ukrainian side exceed those of the Russians.
In this respect, the North Korean offer sounds quite tempting to Moscow. This is especially true because North Korea has many artillery experts. After all, Pyongyang has set up an enormous number of artillery batteries along the demarcation line to the South, which in the event of war could turn a broad strip along this border into a moonscape – including the South Korean capital Seoul.
For the North Korean leadership, sending 100,000 “volunteers” would be a good option. After all, this could be reciprocated in the form of grain, food, and energy sources such as oil, natural gas, and coal.
At the same time, Moscow could conserve its military resources and would also receive additional manpower to rebuild the war-torn areas. Since many North Koreans also learn Russian in schools, language barriers would be low.
It is unclear how effective North Korean troops, workers, or whatever you want to call them, would be on the front lines in Ukraine.
What the Korean People’s Army (KPA) lacks in technology, it makes up for in size and firepower-two things Russia could use in a protracted war of attrition in Ukraine. Moreover, in many cases, they are accustomed to operating in relatively dire conditions with minimal rights or resources, which likely makes their deployment in a war zone attractive to Moscow.
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