North Korean troops in Russia are being redeployed as Pyongyang seeks tactics and tech

Thousands of North Korean soldiers were sent to the Kursk region of Russia in late 2024 to fight alongside Russia. But where are they now?

North Korea sent 14,000 troops to Russia, and at least 6,000 are thought to have died. Some took their own lives rather than face capture, and only two were ever taken prisoner.

In this report, BFBS Forces News' Simon Newton looks at what is known about North Korea's deployment – and why tracking the soldiers has become harder.

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This week, Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un opened a new residential district in Pyongyang for the families of soldiers killed fighting for Vladimir Putin.

The troops have not disappeared completely. They have been absorbed into Russian units, where media access is much tighter, and they have shifted into more specialised roles such as artillery crews and reconnaissance drone operators.

Around 3,000 are also believed to have returned to North Korea to become instructors. Pyongyang's main goal was never simply helping the Kremlin; it was about its soldiers gaining combat experience and access to Russian tactics and technology.

Kyiv says North Koreans are still fighting in the Sumy region of Ukraine. Tens of thousands more are working in Russian arms factories, many assembling drones. 

They are earning Pyongyang millions of dollars a month, while also gaining engineering skills that could allow North Korea to mass-produce its own attack drones in the future.