North Korea offering 100,000 troops to help defeat Ukraine, Russian state media says

• North Korea has offered Russia 100,000 troops to help defeat Ukraine, according to Russian state media.
• A Russian pundit said North Korean troops could bring useful experience with counter-battery warfare, per reports.

North Korea has offered 100,000 "volunteer" troops to the Kremlin to help Russia win the war against Ukraine, according to Russian state media.

"There are reports that 100,000 North Korean volunteers are prepared to come and take part in the conflict," said the Russian military pundit Igor Korotchenko on Channel One Russia, per the New York Post.

Korotchenko praised the North Korean military's "wealth of experience with counter-battery warfare," the newspaper reported.

Effective counter-battery warfare is of increased importance to the Russian military following the US decision to donate a dozen HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) to Ukraine, military magazine 1945 reported. A military expert told Insider's Sinéad Baker last month, that the long-range, high-precision rockets have made "a massive difference" to Ukraine's war efforts.

Korotchenko went on to argue that Russia should welcome the North Korean troops and their counter-battery expertise.

"If North Korea expresses a desire to meet its international duty to fight against Ukrainian fascism, we should let them," he said, according to the New York Post.

North Korea's military is the world's fourth largest, with nearly 1.3 million active personnel, according to the New York-based Council for Foreign Relations. A further 600,000 serve as reserve soldiers.

Defense experts say it operates with aging equipment and technology, said the CFR.

According to the South Korean newspaper Daily NK, North Korea has also offered up workers to assist Russia in rebuilding a post-war Ukraine.

Citing Russian sources, Daily NK reported that North Korea is planning on sending more than 1,000 workers to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine if Russia wins the war.

"Considering that the war isn't over yet, the government is planning to send workers at an appropriate time while monitoring the situation on the ground," a North Korean source said, per Daily NK.