North Korea Deploys Troops to Fight in Russia

In October and November 2024, the United States, South Korea, and NATO confirmed that North Korea had deployed approximately 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers to Russia's Kursk Oblast to fight alongside Russian forces against Ukraine — the first deployment of North Korean combat troops outside the Korean Peninsula since the Korean War. The troops suffered significant casualties. Their deployment marked a dramatic internationalization of the conflict, representing a formal military alliance between Russia and North Korea and raising concerns about technology transfers and the emergence of an authoritarian bloc supporting Russia's war.