"Here we are. Boys from North Korea.”
In a video that was geolocated by The New York Times to a military training range in the village of Sergeyevka in Russia’s Far East Primorsky Krai, a male voice describes what appears to be a group of soldiers: The person who shot the video then walks toward a crowd gathered near the entrance to the green and white building.
In recent days, videos that appear to show North Korean troops stationed in Russia have been circulating on social media.
South Korea and Ukraine have claimed for weeks that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent troops to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. The United States publicly agreed with that assessment on Wednesday, saying North Korea had moved at least 3,000 soldiers to several training camps in Russia’s far east not far from the North Korean border. Even Russian President Vladimir V. Putin appears to acknowledge the presence of North Korean troops in his country.
On Thursday, Ukraine claimed there were now 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia, adding that some had arrived in the Kursk region, which Ukraine has held territory since launching its invasion in August.
Two U.S. officials announced Friday that thousands of North Koreans had arrived in western Kursk. White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that some North Korean troops may be sent there. The Times could not independently confirm that soldiers were deployed there.
Sergeyevka’s video was posted on Russian independent media organization Astra’s Telegram, along with other footage showing soldiers walking around, chatting and smoking.
Dmitry Kuznets, a military analyst at Meduza, another independent Russian news outlet, said the men were wearing standard Russian military uniforms known as all-season field uniforms, and were manufactured by a Russian company called BTK Group. It is said to have been manufactured.
According to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, North Korean troops received weapons and forged identification cards in addition to military uniforms. They will then be able to pretend to be East Siberians, indigenous Buryat and Yakut people with Asian features.
Another video released by Ukraine’s government agency, the Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security, shows dozens of soldiers standing in long lines inside the building. The Ukrainian agency set up to counter Russian disinformation said the video showed North Korean soldiers preparing for deployment at a training facility in Sergeyevka.
The Ukrainian agency was reluctant to provide the Times with the original video files or details about the video’s origins. The Times could not confirm the exact location or time the video was shot. However, the interior design is consistent with the design of Russian and Ukrainian military canteens. The video may have been shot in a building within the Sergeyevka complex. The windows apparently resemble those seen in buildings adjacent to military barracks where North Korean soldiers were recorded walking around. There are also signs of increased activity inside the building, with the fence between it and the barracks recently removed, and satellite images outside the building showing trash and cars for the first time in years.
The footage includes the voices of soldiers speaking in a distinctive North Korean accent, said North Korean defector Kim Seung-cheol, head of the Seoul-based North Korean Reform Radio, which broadcasts foreign news to North Korea. That’s what it means.
Troops take turns filling military packs with supplies that appear to have been unpacked from boxes bearing the BTK Group logo. Kuznets said he was able to identify a sleeping bag, jacket, pants, shirt and suspenders in the footage.
It remains unclear what kind of training North Korean troops received in Russia, and it is also unclear where they will or will be sent.
“We continue to monitor what is happening,” national security spokesman Kirby said.
Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.