N. Korea's Kim in high-stakes gamble by sending troops to Ukraine war

Regime eyes Russian payout and military tech, but risks unrest over casualties

- Wendy Teo

By throwing in his lot with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and joining the war in Ukraine, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is taking on the biggest gamble of his leadership, say analysts.

With North Korea's economy facing immense difficulties, and growing civil unrest threatening his control of the regime, Mr Kim has calculated that joining the war would bring him more benefits than losses, said Dr Doo Jin-ho, who heads the global strategy division at the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses think-tank.

Evidence of North Korea sending more than 10,000 of its elite troops to Russia for war deployment started surfacing in mid-October, but Moscow and Pyongyang have thus far refused to confirm the deployment.

Pyongyang has also supplied eight million artillery shells and dozens of modern short-range ballistic missiles in the past year to bolster Russia's war efforts, said South Korean intelligence officials.

"Mr Kim does not have many cards left to put on a war (against South Korea) by himself. That is why he is fully vested in putting his troops to the Ukraine war," Dr Doo said at a briefing for foreign media in Seoul on Nov 13.

After supplying Russia with the shells and missiles, he said, North Korea "has virtually nothing left" in terms of conventional weapons, and is at its "weakest point". It is thus banking on Russia for a security umbrella and strategic defence deterrence, he added.