Eighth United States Army (EUSA) commander: “North Korean troops return home after gaining experience in modern warfare in Ukraine”

[Financial News] North Korean troops, deployed to the war in Ukraine for at least two years, are said to be accumulating experience in modern warfare, including the use of drones and electronic warfare. North Korea plans to send even more personnel to Ukraine in the future.
According to the U.S. political news outlet Axios on the 27th (local time), Lieutenant General Joseph Hilbert, commander of EUSA under USFK, made the remarks to local reporters in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. “Just as we are all watching how the nature of warfare is changing in Ukraine and the Middle East, North Korea is clearly doing the same,” he said. Hilbert noted that North Korea was “gaining experience in that war, where drones and robots are changing the nature of warfare, and returning (to North Korea).” He said he would not go into specifics about what the current relationship between North Korea and Russia looks like, while also saying, “There is clear cooperation.”
South Korean intelligence authorities estimate that at least 16,000 North Korean personnel have been sent to Russia since the first large-scale deployment in October 2024. As of February, casualties among North Korean troops were estimated at about 6,000.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on the 28th of last month that North Korea was preparing to deploy an additional 10,000 troops and that at least 8,000 were already believed to be stationed in Russia. Zelenskyy also suggested that North Korea could provide up to 50,000 personnel. The U.S. think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) also confirmed evidence last August that North Korean troops operated reconnaissance drones and first-person-view (FPV) drones alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk region.
Earlier, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), which oversees 17 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), also warned in its “2026 Annual Threat Assessment Report” last March that North Korean troops’ combat experience should be treated with caution. The DNI said, “The North Korean military has gained valuable combat experience in 21st-century warfare,” adding, “North Korea’s ability to institutionalize the lessons learned (from fighting for Russia) and consolidate the gains it has made in Russia will determine how valuable that experience will be.”
Russia is providing North Korea with a range of advanced equipment in addition to combat experience and deployment allowances. The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), which monitors the implementation of sanctions against North Korea, said in a report last May that Russia had transferred to North Korea at least one Pantsir mobile air defense system and Pantsir-class combat vehicles, and had also provided electronic warfare equipment.
In this connection, U.S. Army General Xavier Brunson, commander of USFK, said at an event hosted by the U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on the 13th, “North Korea did not have that kind of jamming equipment before,” adding, “That equipment was given to them by Russia.”
[email protected] Park Jong-won Reporter