North Korea Deploys 400-Person Drone Unit Among 8500 Troops Operating in Kursk Oblast

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Intelligence chief Vadym Skibitskyi told CNN that Russia has deployed roughly 8,500 North Korean troops to Kursk Oblast, including about 1,000 engineers and sappers and 400 drone operators 123. The drone operators, many with experience from earlier North Korean deployments, are likely to be used for both reconnaissance and strikes inside Ukraine, while Ukrainian intelligence assesses the broader North Korean contingent will not fight on Ukrainian territory but will reinforce Russian rear positions and free up Russian troops for assaults, Skibitskyi said 1. He added that Russia may request up to 50,000 additional North Korean troops when Putin and Kim Jong Un meet in September, that roughly 25,000 North Korean soldiers have already deployed or rotated through Russia's military, and that North Korea has requested a Russian S-400 air defense system in exchange for troops, having already received a Pantsir-1 surface-to-air missile system and at least 150 KN-23/KN-24 ballistic missiles, with 120 more promised 12. Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un's sister, denied that tens of thousands more troops are being prepared, calling the reports a "groundless self-fabricated scenario" 1.