North Koreans in Russian Uniform Is Unprecedented. All Bets Are Off

One hesitation I had about the video allegedly showing North Korean infantrymen in Russia was that the folks in the video are fairly dark-skinned. Russia and Laos held a joint exercise near Vladivostok in August, could the Asians in the video be Laotian, with the Korean speech somehow artificially added in?

Probably not, because the uniforms worn by Laotians in August were very different, but you never know.

But then I came across this photo of Kim inspecting Korea’s spetsnaz:

2 percent body fat and armed only with roof tiles

Turns out Korea’s elite infantrymen do not look like the sickly-pale K-pop idols, these guys are tanned as heck. Hell, they may be tanner than the Laotians who visited in August so it all checks out.

The Laotians in August wore their distinctive uniforms, they weren’t dressed in Russian gear

With this, my confidence that Korean troops have been brought to Russia’s Far East goes from 80% to 95%.

In the meantime a third video said to show the North Koreans in Russia has surfaced:

“Handsome allies have arrived from North Korea. I hope this will be the end of the war,” says the author of the video in Yakut.

At first, I thought this video at least may not be what it purports to be. I figured since the narrator is Yakut who’s to say these aren’t his Yakut friends? Indeed we can hear “Koreans. Aha.” followed by laughter. Who’s to say a willy Siberian isn’t playing a practical joke on us?

However, once again Korean outlets write they believe they were able to make out Korean speech, specifically 힘들다야 (“it’s hard”) and 늦었어 (“it’s late”).

Also, the video has been geolocated to the very same Sergeevka base where an earlier video with a Russian soldier narrating that he’s filming foreign troops was taken at.

Russia and North Korea both have so far omitted to deny that the unprecedented transfer of Korean troops abroad has taken place.

Confronting the allegations at the UN Pyongyang responded in a characteristic combative manner, but in a way that contradicts nothing:

“…my delegation does not feel any need for comment on such groundless, stereotyped rumors aimed at smearing the image of the DPRK..”

Which part of the allegations is a smear? Just the part about Ukraine or also about Russia? The imperialists and their dogs are not owed a clarification so none is forthcoming.

Peskov similarly stayed vague, neither confirming nor denying anything:

“We see a lot of contradictory information. The South Koreans say one thing, and then the Pentagon says that they have no confirmation, so there is a lot of contradictory information. So that’s probably how it should be approached.“

Funny. The Russian journalist posing the question obviously knows the information out there is confusing, that’s why he’s asking Peskov to enlighten him. Instead, Peskov tells him that for now, the policy is to say nothing.

Kim’s sister then called out Seoul and Kiev as “two bad dogs bred by the US” but again without clarifying.

To be perfectly honest I find the Kremlin’s newfound cleverness in refusing to be caught issuing non-credible denials, unhelpful for bloggers. That there are Koreans in Vladivostok is almost certain. So had Peskov tried denying the one piece of data we know is true, that would have been a very, very interesting piece of information and a useful pointer (like it was in 2022). Instead, the ambiguity on display leaves us none the wiser.

Nonetheless, even if the clever Pyongyang and Moscow are not helpful, there is already quite a bit that we do know:

1. We know that North Korean infantry is in Russia near Vladivostok.

2. We know that this in itself is historically unprecedented, and would have been unthinkable even just six months ago.

3. We know that the Koreans have been put in Russian uniforms.

That this is completely unprecedented means that we are in new, uncharted waters. What we thought we know (eg about North Korean isolationism) may no longer hold.

Just like you, I also know that North Korea practices Stalinist security xenophobia and in principle seeks to minimize contact of its citizens with the outside which is considered contaminating. This goes doubly for the armed forces.

However, if the security xenophobia was an overriding factor for everything in 2024 then the transfer of hundreds of troops to Vladivostok should already not have taken place. Having witnessed Pyongyang make one exception to its long-standing policy we can not with any great confidence rule out another.

Meanwhile, that the North Koreans are in Russia in Russian colors doesn’t leave many possibilities as to why they’re here, and what comes next. They are receiving familiarity training on how to operate alongside and under Russians. Why? Possibilities I can think of are:

1. They will be joining the fray shortly, first in Kursk and then in Donetsk.

2. They will be sent to man an inactive part of the international Russia-Ukraine border (eg in Bryansk) freeing up Russian troops for combat.

3. They will not travel west, Moscow merely wants to show Ukraine it has a foreign manpower pool it could tap in 2025 should negotiations expected for when Trump wins not proceed to its liking.

We’ll know more in the coming weeks and months, in the meantime, trolling has already started, with the Russian troops unfurling a North Korean flag on the front near Pokrovsk:

And then this: