• North Korea got a good deal by sending its officials to help Russia’s war in Ukraine, experts said.
• Not only does it provide a payment lifeline, it also gains access to vital combat data from a war zone.
• The partnership with Russia provides vital resources to North Korea’s stressed economy.

The reported presence of North Korean officials supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine is a “win-win” scenario for Kim Jong Un, offering military benefits with few downsides, experts from the reclusive region told Business Insider.

In a discussion on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “North Korea has in fact entered the war,” according to state-owned United24 Media.

It follows a Washington Post report that quoted a Ukrainian military intelligence official as saying thousands of North Korean troops are already in Russia and receiving training for possible combat by the end of the year. The Kremlin has denied the report and supporting evidence has not emerged publicly so far.

The latest claims come after scattered reports in recent months described the presence of North Korean officials such as engineers and technicians working in support roles behind the front lines of the conflict.

The number is in the dozens, according to recent reporting from The Guardian.

Even a limited number of North Korean officials helping Russia is a crucial boost for Kim Jong Un and his regime, experts tell Business Insider.

It comes as Kim rushes to build nuclear weapons to deter South Korea’s key ally, the US.

“It’s a win-win situation,” said Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., a North Korean defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “He gets paid and gets access to foreign technology. He gets access to real-world combat information to improve his defensive and offensive capabilities.”

Leaving the hermit kingdom

“There is broad interest around the world to use the conflict in Ukraine as a laboratory for what will work in future conflicts,” Bruce W. Bennett, a defense researcher and North Korea specialist at RAND, told BI.

And for sanctions-stricken, isolated North Korea, that’s a big opportunity.

It has been documented that North Korea transferred large numbers of grenades, missiles, glide bombs – and, it is suspected, even old Soviet-era artillery pieces – to Russia during the war.

Experts have suggested that Russia is likely to provide economic aid and diplomatic assistance in return.

But the deal offers much more. North Korea is trying to modernize its vast military and has new capabilities to ask for advanced Russian systems or the designs to build them, from submarines and fighter jets to intercontinental ballistic missiles for its growing nuclear arsenal.

Russia has already promised to help North Korea with satellite launches.

And even without Russian systems or technology transfers, North Korea could make gains in another notable way: by gaining combat experience for North Koreans who rarely interact with the outside world.

“There are undoubtedly three classes of North Korean personnel in Russia right now,” Bermudez said.

First of all, there are embassy staff, “usually counselors and military personnel,” who are there to soak up information about the rapidly changing nature of the conflict on the Ukrainian battlefield, including when it comes to Western military equipment.

“So have Western air defense systems been successful? If so, which ones? Everything they can find out about the equipment, its vulnerabilities, operational procedures,” Bermudez said.

North Korea is also sending representatives from the manufacturers of military equipment it supplies, acting as a kind of babysitter to ensure it arrives in usable condition, he added.

“Finally there are ammunition experts,” Bermudez continued.

These are the engineers and technicians who know how to operate the weapons and are most likely the ones who visit the battlefield to see them in action.

Similarly, Iranian experts have assisted the Russians with Shahed attack drones, Ukrainian officials claim.

Their job is to train their counterparts, solve problems and document successes and failures of military products in a real war situation.

And what they learn there can be extremely valuable at home – sending detailed reports that are absorbed by North Korea’s military training authorities, potentially feeding into military manuals and training plans, and providing fodder for design or doctrinal changes, said Bermudez.

Russia is also sending technical know-how and better parts as they tinker with North Korea’s munitions, Bermudez said: “The Russians can say, ‘Oh, we looked at your guidance system. You may want to do A, B and C or include this gyroscope instead of the one you are using, otherwise we can provide you with better gyroscopes.’ Things like that.”

The more times you can see your weapons fired in a real war situation, “the better your system can be,” he said.

“The North Koreans have an incredible, unique opportunity to do that. And they get paid for it,” Bermudez added.

Keeping an ailing regime afloat

An analysis from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, published in April, argued that the expensive pursuit of hypermilitarization has contributed to the widespread extreme poverty that now endangers North Korea.

About 25 to 30 percent of the territory’s gross domestic product has been spent on its military, which as of 2022 had the fourth largest military in the world, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

This makes the lucrative supply partnership with Russia a lifeline for Kim’s regime, Bennett said.

There is also an appetite among the North Korean elite for consumer goods, which Russian support can help meet, Bennett said. But he argued that sending North Koreans abroad as part of the deal would come at some cost.

Six North Korean officials were killed in an attack in occupied Ukraine in early October, according to the Kyiv Post, in a report that Business Insider could not independently verify.

The report is one that “must resonate in North Korea,” Bennett said.

He pointed out that Kim would likely allow only the most loyal citizens to leave the country — the state’s elites — “to minimize the chance of their defecting.”

“Now if the story gets out in North Korea that some of their elite children are being killed, boy, those families aren’t going to be happy,” he said. That is something the West can take advantage of, he suggested.

Nevertheless, there is little chance of domestic discontent causing an immediate shift in power, the Carnegie Endowment report said.

In the meantime, the question remains how long Pyongyang can keep this extremely beneficial exchange with Moscow going.

Sooner or later – and recent reports suggest it could be sooner – President Vladimir Putin may ask for combat troops for the front.

“There are only so many advisers Russia can use,” Bennett said.