Russian soldiers complain about North Korean troops: intercepted calls

WASHINGTON – Ukraine's spies say they intercepted phone calls showing chaos as Russia works to integrate North Korean troops into its military operations.

According to Ukrainian defense intelligence, some of the calls were intercepted by troops involved in the defense of Kursk, a region of Russia on Ukraine's northern border where Ukrainian troops seized territory in August.

The Russian military assigned a translator and three Russian military personnel to every 30 North Korean soldiers, the spy service learned from the calls.

But in intercepted calls, Russian soldiers appeared doubtful whether they would have enough commanders to lead the new units or enough weapons and ammunition to arm them 979 days after the Moscow invasion began.

In a call recorded in Kursk, according to the spy service, a Russian soldier expressed “outrage” at a commander who ordered troops to provide newly arrived North Korean troops with Russian armored vehicles, which were already in short supply.

“I want to kill him today, yes, after the Koreans,” a soldier says, according to the audio.

In another call, a soldier complained that there were not enough translators. “We all work like translators now,” he said.

In the profanity-laced audio, another soldier rudely referred to the troops as “Chinese.”

The agency said it also learned that Russian police stopped a truck full of North Korean soldiers heading to Kursk on Sunday because the driver did not have “combat orders.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to strengthen ties and exchange information about the roughly 12,000 North Korean troops he said will move to Russian military bases.

Ukraine and South Korea are planning a “delegation exchange,” he said in a post to X.

Meanwhile, North Korea's foreign minister has arrived in eastern Russia and will travel to Moscow for her second visit in six weeks, Russian state media reported, although the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had not scheduled a meeting with her.

The Pentagon said on Monday that about 10,000 North Korean soldiers are currently stationed at military posts in Russia's eastern region and could be deployed to Kursk in the coming weeks – an increase from last week's estimate of 3,000.

“We are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk Oblast, near the border with Ukraine,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Monday.

Contribution: Reuters

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