Axis of Odd: North Korea Ships 30,000 Troops and 25,000 Drone Builders to Russia

Forget “Hermit Kingdom,” now it’s “Hermit Kingdom with a Union Card.” And the newest employer? The Russian Ministry of Defense.

DPRK soldiers. Used without permission because fuck those guys.

Remember when North Korea was the global punchline for bad haircuts and worse missiles?

Well, it’s 2025, and Kim Jong Un just did a career pivot.

Forget “Hermit Kingdom,” now it’s “Hermit Kingdom with a Union Card.” And the newest employer? The Russian Ministry of Defense, specializing in drone assembly lines, front-line cannon fodder, and, just to keep things interesting, a little backroom barter in sophisticated air defense systems.

Putin and Kim’s romance is the smash hit of the summer! Two houses, both alike in indignity, in fair Pyongyang where we lay our scene.

Moscow’s New North Korean Workforce: It’s Not Just About Borscht and Ballet Anymore

Moscow’s labor shortage isn’t new; Russian defense plants have been starving for skilled workers ever since the Soviet factory towns turned into bingo halls and rusting bus stops.

But the Ukraine war supercharged the crisis. As drone warfare morphed from curiosity to lifeline, the Kremlin’s planners realized their biggest bottleneck wasn’t technology, or even sanctions, it was a shortage of hands who actually know how to build this stuff, reliably, by the thousands.

Enter Kim Jong-Un, the pudgy manchild ace up Russia’s industrial sleeve.

Kim Jong Un, never one to let a revenue opportunity pass him by, is dispatching a small army of industrial workers, 25,000 strong, to the heart of Russia’s military-industrial machine. Picture an exodus of technicians, machinists, and electronics assemblers stepping off battered buses in Tatarstan, all under the watchful eye of Russian security, clutching toolboxes and survival rations.

They’re not tourists.

They’re not “advisors.”

They’re the new backbone of the Alabuga drone factory, keeping production lines humming at a pace that would make any capitalist management consultant break out in a cold sweat.

The North Koreans bring a brand of factory discipline and technical training that survived decades of Juche austerity and purges back home. In an era where Russia’s own education system is struggling to crank out enough engineers who can operate a soldering iron without burning down the plant, Kim’s workforce is oddly reliable.

They don’t ask questions.

They don’t strike for better lunch breaks.

And most importantly, they’re a pipeline of skilled labor Russia can pay in rubles, food, or whatever currency Pyongyang’s regime fancies this week.

From the Kremlin’s perspective, it’s a rare win-win: Russia gets an industrial shot in the arm, while North Korea reaps hard currency and, more importantly, access to technology that would be locked away if Moscow weren’t desperate.

The Alabuga plant becomes both a drone factory and a finishing school for North Korean engineers; learn by doing, then take those skills back to Pyongyang’s own weapons programs.

It’s a real-life arms bazaar and trade school rolled into one.

If you’re wondering why Putin is inviting an entire foreign workforce into one of his most sensitive military projects, the answer is simple: he doesn’t have a better option. North Korea is the only cog in the machine that fits right now, as Moscow tries to turn drone warfare into an industrialized meat grinder, not just a boutique capability.

Bottom line: when you see swarms of Shahed drones over Ukrainian skies, chances are they didn’t just come from Russian blueprints. They were made, quite literally, by the hands of Pyongyang’s best and most exportable resource: its people.

30,000 North Korean Troops… Because Putin Can’t Say No to Bulk Orders

If you thought the DPRK sending 25k assembly workers to Russia was a little disquieting, just wait.

Let’s talk about boots on the ground, because that’s exactly what Kim Jong Un is sending to Russia in a scale that would make even Wagner blush.

Thirty thousand more North Korean soldiers are reportedly headed west, not for sightseeing, but for hard, cold frontline combat in Ukraine.

Russia’s “special military operation” has always relied on a steady drip of manpower, whether it’s poorly trained conscripts from the Russian hinterlands, mercenaries with questionable tattoos, or convicted criminals looking for a pardon and a fast track to a pine box.

But this new wave of North Korean fighters is a real, big-boy strategic escalation. These aren’t cooks, drivers, or guys painting fences behind the lines. They’re actual combat troops, reportedly meant to reinforce offensive operations that are shaping up to be anything but routine.

And if you’ve been reading my work for a while, you’ll remember my take on the skill of these DPRK troops. You can read about them here, but essentially, Ukrainian soldiers report that the North Koreans are surprisingly disciplined… especially when compared to Russia’s own fighters.

Now, Kyiv’s intelligence reports point to North Korean units being prepped and equipped by the Russian Ministry of Defense, ready to head straight into the fray as Moscow ramps up for another summer offensive.

North Korean troops have a well-earned reputation for obedience and toughness, maybe less so for tactical finesse, but Putin’s not picky.

He needs bodies. Kim’s sending bodies.

This isn’t lost on Ukraine’s generals, who now face the prospect of fighting a foreign legion that’s motivated not just by pay, but by a regime back home that treats falling in battle like hitting the Powerball. North Korea’s state TV has started celebrating its own “martyrs” in Ukraine, painting their sacrifices as a glorious extension of the motherland’s global struggle.

If you’re a Pyongyang conscript with no connections, your odds of seeing home again are about the same as getting a vacation in Miami.

The scale of this deployment has real consequences on the battlefield.

For Moscow, it means breathing room for Russian units worn thin by years of fighting, and the ability to rotate exhausted formations off the line.

For Kim, it’s a demonstration that North Korea is willing to bleed, literally, for its new strategic partner. It’s also a chance for his troops to gain real experience they could never get in a controlled Pyongyang parade.

And let’s not ignore the optics: two of the world’s most isolated, sanctioned regimes forming what amounts to a human swap meet in the middle of Europe. It’s the ultimate middle finger to Western efforts to isolate them. The message here is clear: If you push us to the margins, we’ll build our own alliances, no matter how bizarre or bloody.

What’s in It for Kim? Spoiler: It’s Not Just a Box of Chocolates and Thank-You Note

Let’s talk quid pro quo. Why is Kim playing quartermaster and manpower contractor for Moscow? Because the trade-off is deliciously 21st-century: North Korea gets a crash course in drone production, operational expertise from Russia’s defense sector, and, just this week, a shiny new Russian Pantsir-S1 air defense system, complete with the kind of jamming tech that keeps Western pilots awake at night.

That’s a big deal for Pyongyang. The Pantsir-S1 can blast helicopters, cruise missiles, and even drones out of the sky, while its radar and optical tracking let it handle swarms; just the sort of challenge North Korea expects if (when) things get spicy on the peninsula.

Pantsir S1 of Serbian Air Force and Air Defence. By Savkeez1 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0

Add in Russian technical upgrades for North Korea’s own missile guidance systems, and Kim’s military just got a major power-up, all in flagrant violation of a stack of U.N. sanctions.

So, while Western pundits are busy counting containers, (20,000+ shipped from North Korea to Russia since last fall, with millions of artillery shells, anti-tank missiles, and more), the real story is the military tech trade: North Korea gets hands-on experience with modern drone production, advanced air defense, and a deepening alliance with the world’s favorite international pariah.

But Kim isn’t just trading workers for blueprints. There’s a less visible but more tantalizing benefit: diplomatic leverage. By stepping up as Moscow’s indispensable ally, North Korea forces Russia into a position where it needs Pyongyang far more than the other way around.

That means Kim gets to bargain for things he actually cares about, like satellite launch tech, missile guidance upgrades, and even raw materials that have been hard to come by since the border slammed shut in 2020.

It’s a rare moment where the Hermit Kingdom calls some shots, instead of just responding to them.

Let’s not forget prestige. Kim gets to look tough and “relevant” on the world stage. For a regime obsessed with image and survival, being able to point to Russian medals, state visits, and cutting-edge air defense systems rolling through Pyongyang is both propaganda gold and a deterrent message to both Seoul and Washington: mess with us, and you’re not just dealing with North Korea anymore. You’re poking the bear, too.

And then there’s the kicker: access to real battlefield data. By deploying thousands of his own troops to Russia’s Ukrainian front, Kim’s military is getting firsthand lessons in modern combined-arms warfare: what works, what fails, and how high-tech weapons and tactics actually play out when things get chaotic.

That’s intelligence you can’t fake in a wargame, and it will quietly shape North Korea’s next-generation doctrine for years. I can’t stress how important this is. If we ever go to war with China, the one silver lining is that the PLA has no recent warfighting experience. Meanwhile, the US military has been at war more or less constantly for the past 125 years. Those countless battlefields have imparted invaluable doctrinal “lessons learned” for Western armies.

In this series of events, the DPRK will actually have more modern combat experience than the dragon in China.

So, for Kim, this isn’t charity work. It’s the biggest technology transfer and confidence-boosting project his regime has pulled off in decades, all wrapped in the flag of “mutual support.”

Why Russia Needs Kim’s Labor, And Why Putin Doesn’t Care About the Optics

It’s not like Vladimir Putin woke up one morning thinking, “You know what would really spice up the war effort? North Korean labor unions!” But desperate times call for awkward alliances, and Russia’s defense sector has been running on fumes for years.

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow’s been scrambling to rebuild its war machine from the ground up. But here’s the catch: you can’t crank out thousands of drones, tanks, and artillery shells if you don’t have enough people who know which end of a soldering iron to hold.

Russia’s vaunted “defense renaissance” looks impressive in glossy press releases, but in the factories, it’s a different story: chronic labor shortages, aging engineers, and a new generation more interested in YouTube than in wrench-turning for the state.

That’s where Kim Jong Un comes in, offering up a workforce trained in old-school industrial discipline, with none of the pesky habits like demanding higher wages or posting memes about bad cafeteria food.

North Korean labor is cheap, available, and, let’s be honest, completely expendable from the Kremlin’s perspective. For Putin, it’s a plug-and-play solution to the one bottleneck that Western sanctions can’t fix: a lack of skilled, motivated labor willing to toil in military plants for endless hours and minimal pay.

And then there’s the question of loyalty. North Korean workers aren’t about to jump ship, leak secrets to Western journalists, or strike for “mental health days.” They’re closely watched, beholden to their own regime, and conditioned to follow orders, making them the ideal “quiet hands” for sensitive work in places like the Alabuga drone complex. Russia’s own labor force, battered by years of brain drain and demographic collapse, simply can’t keep up.

Now, about those optics. Putin knows perfectly well that flying in a small army of North Koreans is the diplomatic equivalent of setting fire to a stack of U.N. resolutions and roasting marshmallows over it. But at this point, he doesn’t care. International censure? He’s already the villain in every Western headline. Sanctions? Russia’s gotten so good at workarounds, it might as well teach a master class.

If the price of keeping the Russian war machine grinding is a North Korean workforce, so be it. In Putin’s calculus, victory justifies any means, no matter how it looks to the rest of the world.

For him, optics are for the weak. Output is for the winners.

The Real Risks: Sanctions? What Sanctions?

On paper, Russia and North Korea’s cozy new arrangement should trigger alarms in every major capital. The list of U.N. sanctions against Pyongyang reads like a greatest hits album of “Do Not Touch” clauses: no arms deals, no military tech transfers, no sending your army to Europe for some light mercenary work.

In practice? The sanctions regime is starting to look about as solid as a cardboard tank during a thunderstorm at a May Day parade.

Let’s be honest, sanctions used to matter. Back in the early days, they pinched North Korea’s access to hard currency and technology, slowed down Russia’s arms procurement, and sent both regimes scrambling for creative solutions. But now, with two pariah states openly thumbing their noses at the global order, the rules are more guidelines than law. Moscow and Pyongyang move troops, weapons, and industrial labor across borders with all the subtlety of a monster truck rally, daring the rest of the world to do something about it.

Sure, U.N. watchdogs will put out strongly worded statements and sternly remind everyone of international obligations. But enforcement? That’s a different story. The usual response is diplomatic tsk-tsking and maybe a new round of sanctions stacked on top of the old ones, like putting a padlock on a barn door after the horse has run off, changed its name and started a new career as a racehorse in another country.

Meanwhile, the North Korean-Russian conveyor belt keeps rolling. The real risk here is that the post-WWII global order, already fragile, takes another hit. If the world’s most comprehensive sanctions can’t even slow down this level of military collusion, what message does that send to every other aspiring rule-breaker?

So yes, Western officials will keep talking about “unacceptable violations.” But for Putin and Kim, the only unacceptable thing would be losing.

For now, sanctions are just another speed bump on the highway to hell. The rest of us? We’re along for the ride, white-knuckled in the back seat, hoping the wheels don’t come off first.

This unholy partnership is a full-throttle, open-ended alliance built on mutual need, mutual sanctions-busting, and a healthy dose of desperation. North Korean workers are now an integral part of Russia’s drone war, and Pyongyang’s troops are trading trench lessons with the Kremlin’s best and worst.

The West can gnash its teeth all it wants, but unless it finds a way to counter the flow of labor, munitions, and technology, Ukraine is facing a war of attrition that just got a whole lot longer, and a lot weirder.

Ukraine is more than willing to fight. The issue is that they have unreliable Western partners, especially in the US.

So what can Ukraine do?

Let’s start with the obvious: Ukraine can’t outmatch Russia and North Korea in the body-count game. Nobody wants to fight a war of attrition with regimes that treat human life like printer paper: cheap and endlessly replaceable. So, Ukraine needs to do what it does best: fight smarter, not just harder.

If Russia is importing North Korean labor and muscle, Ukraine should keep importing Western brains and gadgets. That means more HIMARS, Patriots, F-16s, and a steady stream of next-gen counter-drone systems because nothing ruins a drone factory’s day quite like a Storm Shadow cruise missile through the roof. If the West needed another reason to accelerate weapons deliveries, this is it. Unfortunately, this will have to come primarily from European allies since the US has aligned itself with the Putin regime.

But don’t just ask for European hardware. Training and technical exchanges, especially on drone warfare, EW, and combined-arms maneuvers, will help Ukraine stay one step ahead of whatever Frankenstein force Moscow and Pyongyang can cobble together.

Hit the Supply Lines, Not Just the Soldiers

Here’s the thing about armies of “volunteers” from North Korea: they still need to eat, sleep, and move. Russia’s new logistics train is stretching all the way across Eurasia, which means a lot more targets for Ukraine’s deep-strike arsenal. Bridges, depots, railways, drone factories in Tatarstan… these are fair game. The more Ukraine can disrupt the North Korea-to-Russia pipeline, the less effective this alliance will be.

Leverage Intelligence and Sabotage

Time to dust off those Cold War playbooks. Ukraine’s intelligence services, already legendary, can work with allies to infiltrate, monitor, and, when possible, sabotage these new lines of cooperation. Think cyber, think HUMINT, think industrial accidents that don’t look accidental. If the North Koreans are learning on Russian production lines, maybe they should also “learn” what it’s like when nothing works as planned.

Double Down on Morale and Asymmetric Warfare

Here’s what Moscow and Pyongyang don’t get: Ukrainian morale is worth more than a warehouse full of drones or a regiment of conscripts. Keep investing in what’s worked: flexible, decentralized command, creative use of commercial tech, and propaganda that reminds every soldier (and every civilian) that they’re defending their own home, not fighting for a dictator’s vanity project. North Korean troops may be tough, but they’re not signing up for this war out a need to survive. That’s a vulnerability Ukraine can exploit: psychological ops, leaflet drops, social media campaigns, you name it.

Ukraine can’t fight this alliance on Moscow’s terms, but it doesn’t have to.

Outthink, outmaneuver, and out-message. That’s been the Ukrainian playbook since 2022, and it’s the one that’s turned the tables again and again.

As for the rest of us? Maybe it’s time we start treating Russia and North Korea’s axis not as a punchline, but as a problem; one that demands a little less handwringing, and a lot more action. Perhaps it’s time for a new joint exercise and a surge of troops to South Korea to remind Kim that he’s got his own existential crisis on the peninsula…

For never was a story of more woe / Than this of Putin and his Romeo (who happens to live in Pyongyang).

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