Earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty that commits the two countries to providing each other with military assistance if either is attacked. .
According to the agreement, in the event that either side is put into a state of war by a foreign invasion, the other side will promptly provide military and other assistance with all means in its possession.
The treaty does not mention the current war and there is no immediate indication that North Korea will send troops, but Pyongyang plans to send its military engineering unit to Ukraine’s occupied territories to begin reconstruction work, Reuters reported citing South Korean Chosun TV. The troops sent to Ukraine will likely serve as overseas workers to earn cold hard cash for North Korea, where the economy is being strangled by international sanctions, according to the TV Chosun report.
Pyongyang has supplied weapons to Russia since 2023, but the country has never sent combat troops in significant numbers to wage war in a conflict beyond the Korean Peninsula.
In February, Ukrainian authorities announced that they had shot down at least 20 North Korean ballistic missiles used by Russia in massive attacks on Ukraine since last year. North Korea has supplied more than 11,000 containers of munitions to Russia since last fall, the Washington Post reported.
