North Korean Troops Will Likely Be Sent to Ukraine Next Month

Wes O'Donnell
6 min readJun 26, 2024

Two households, both alike in indignity, in fair Pyongyang, where we lay our scene.

Soldiers from the DPRK look south while on duty in the Joint Security Area. US Army image. Public domain

This proxy war (within a proxy war) is starting to get complicated. Let’s simplify it…

A new defense pact signed this week between Russia and North Korea publicly laid out Moscow’s willingness to engage in full-fledged military cooperation with Pyongyang.

Finally, their secret affair is out in the open.

Gone are the days when Kim Jong-Un quietly sent Moscow large quantities of conventional munitions in exchange for Russian technical assistance with North Korea’s Hwasong-18 missile.

Remember, both Russia and North Korea denied any arms dealings between them before Putin visited Pyongyang this week.

But the Kremlin now concludes that all this sneaking around is for star-crossed lovers… Not authoritarian heads of state.

The most alarming development coming out of this dastardly summit is the mutual defense pact and the sending of North Korean troops, mostly combat engineers, to the Donetsk region of Ukraine to “help rebuild.”

But if you believe for a second that those North Korean troops won’t be sent to the front lines, I have news for you:

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Wes O'Donnell

US Army & US Air Force Veteran | Global Security guy at War is Boring, GEN, OneZero | Intel Forecaster | Law Student | TEDx Speaker | +Democracy | +Human Rights