North Korean troops have learned how to fly drones to help Russian troops adjust fire on Ukrainian positions in the Sumy region, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Thursday.
The Sumy region borders Russia’s Kursk region, where North Korean troops have helped Moscow repel Ukrainian incursions since October 2024.
The General Staff, in a rare update that also contains English translations, wrote that Kyiv troops have “intercepted communications between North Korean drone operators and personnel of the Russian army.”
It said Pyongyang troops have helped Russian troops “[adjust] the fire of multiple launch rocket systems against Ukrainian positions.”
A video released with the update shows a soldier with Asian features speaking in drone footage recorded on the ground. No audio is available.
The General Staff attributed the North Korean troops’ increased involvement to Russia’s “critical manpower losses and the failure of the offensive operation” in the Sumy region.
The latest report marks a sharp contrast to the early deployments of North Korean troops to the Ukrainian front in late October 2024, when frontline reports suggested that Pyongyang’s forces struggled with modern drone warfare.
However, testimonies from captured North Korean fighters and Ukrainian troops subsequently suggested they have since developed countermeasures to shoot down Ukrainian drones.
A lieutenant from the Ukrainian military told The New York Times (NYT) in January that Pyongyang troops are “quite skilled in shooting,” adding that they have “repeatedly destroyed drones.”
“Obviously they were primarily trained for this, so they try to destroy everything in the air,” the soldier said.
Another soldier said Pyongyang troops would often divert one group to act as bait while another shoots down the drones.
The latest report, however, also suggests that North Korean troops are working more closely with their Russian counterparts than previously suggested.
The NYT, citing unnamed Pentagon officials at the time, reported that North Korean generals were typically stationed at command-and-control headquarters, issuing orders to their troops as needed to avoid direct communication between Russian and North Korean units on the ground and minimize the risk of misunderstandings.
But the latest report suggests the two might be communicating directly on a tactical level, bypassing the need to relay orders via the higher echelon.
Pyongyang and Moscow confirmed that North Korean troops fought alongside Russian troops in April, with both hailing growing ties that extended to high-profile cultural exchanges, such as a North Korean art exhibition in Moscow and a pro-war singer performing in North Korea.
Whether those ties extend to ordinary citizens, however, is less clear. A student attending the exhibition told AFP he views the relationship as superficial.
“I call it a temporary partnership… It’s only for the time of the war in Ukraine,” the student said.