"Russia attempts to integrate its forces instead of the North Korean military's independent units"

While North Korean troops sent to Russia have been confirmed to have engaged Ukrainian forces for the first time, it has been diagnosed that Russian forces will try to integrate North Korean troops into their own units instead of organizing them as independent units.

The U.S. think tank's War Research Institute analyzed the organization and command system of North Korean troops sent to Russia based on the situation of the first war in Ukraine released on the 5th local time.

The institute noted the Ukrainian authorities' remarks that it is difficult to accurately determine the extent of the damage because the North Korean military who participated in the fighting wore Russian military uniforms and disguised themselves as members of ethnic minorities in Russia.

Ukrainian authorities say it will be difficult to quickly identify casualties in the initial fighting because North Korean troops are mixed with Russian forces disguised as Buryats living in the Russian Autonomous Republic north of Mongolia.

Based on this, the Institute of War Studies noted, it suggests that Russian forces are attempting to integrate North Korea's combat capabilities into the structure of Russian units instead of maintaining separate North Korean units.

Ukraine expects more North Korean troops training in Russia's Far East to be deployed to the battlefield in the coming weeks, in addition to more than 10,000 North Korean troops gathered in Kursk province.

The institute diagnosed that Russia is likely to put North Korean troops first in repelling Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region, where Ukraine invaded in a surprise move.