Center for Strategic & International Studies 39d ago

Four years into Pyongyang's commitment of munitions, missiles, and ground troops to Russia's war in Ukraine, what has the Korean People's Army actually learned — and brought home? CSIS Korea Chair Senior Adviser Sydney Seiler sits down with Senior Fellow for Imagery Analysis Joseph S. Bermudez Jr. to examine how the deployment has reshaped KPA doctrine, tactics, weapons, and force structure. They cover the first KPA special operations forces sent to the southern front in early 2024 and the horrible casualties they suffered, the subsequent rotations of conventional troops trained in both North Korea and Russia, and what Pyongyang has learned about UAVs in offensive and defensive operations. Bermudez walks through CSIS's satellite imagery analysis of Russia's Yelabuga Special Economic Zone, where the dedicated Shahed-class UAV production footprint has expanded from two small buildings to roughly a dozen to fifteen — with North Korean labor and Chinese components feeding in. REFERENCED A Closer Look at the Yelabuga UAV Factory (Beyond Parallel, March 9, 2026) https://beyondparallel.csis.org/a-closer-look-at-the-yelabuga-uav-factory/ North Korean UAVs at Panghyon (Beyond Parallel, March 3, 2026) https://beyondparallel.csis.org/north-korean-uavs-at-panghyon/ #northkorea #ukraine #russia #kimjongun #vladimirputin --------------------------------------------- A nonpartisan institution, CSIS is the top national security think tank in the world. Visit https://www.csis.org to find more of our work as we bring bipartisan solutions to the world's greatest challenges. Want to see more videos and virtual events? Subscribe to this channel and turn on notifications: https://cs.is/2dCfTve Follow CSIS on: • Twitter: https://twitter.com/csis • Facebook: https://facebook.com/CSIS.org • Instagram: https://instagram.com/csis/