North Korea offers Russia ‘100,000 volunteers’ to fight Ukraine: state media
- A Russian military pundit said on state television that tens of thousands of North Korean troops were ‘prepared to come and take part in the conflict’
- Pyongyang, which controls the world’s fourth-largest military, also reportedly plans to send more than 1,000 workers to Donbas if Russia wins the war
“There are reports that 100,000 North Korean volunteers are prepared to come and take part in the conflict,” said Russian military pundit Igor Korotchenko on Channel One Russia, according to the New York Post.
Korotchenko praised the North Korean military’s “wealth of experience with counter-battery warfare”, the newspaper reported.
Korotchenko went on to argue that Russia should welcome the North Korean troops and their counter-battery expertise.
“If North Korea expresses a desire to meet its international duty to fight against Ukrainian fascism, we should let them,” he said, according to the New York Post.
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North Korea’s military is the world’s fourth largest, with nearly 1.3 million active personnel, according to the New York-based Council for Foreign Relations. A further 600,000 serve as reserve soldiers.
But defence experts say it operates with ageing equipment and technology.
According to the South Korean media outlet Daily NK, North Korea has also offered up workers to assist Russia in rebuilding a post-war Ukraine.
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Citing Russian sources, Daily NK reported that North Korea is planning on sending more than 1,000 workers to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine if Russia wins the war.
“Considering that the war isn’t over yet, the government is planning to send workers at an appropriate time while monitoring the situation on the ground,” a North Korean source cited in Daily NK said.
