Maps trace North Korean troops to the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine War

North Korean troops participating in Vladimir Putin's war have come under fire for the first time, according to a Kiev official, a map shows Newsweek describes their journey from the East Asian peninsula to the front line of a European battlefield.

Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation department at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said on Monday that North Korean troops stationed in Russia's Kursk region had been attacked, but gave no further details.

“The first DPRK military has already come under fire in the Kursk region,” he said in his Telegram post, referring to the name of North Korea and the Russian oblast where Ukraine carried out a surprise invasion in August.

There are varying estimates of how many North Korean troops are stationed in the Russian region, between 8,000 and 12,000, although their effectiveness is questionable.

“Putin assumes that the presence of the North Koreans will force Washington to impose further restrictions on Ukraine to prevent escalation,” said geopolitical analyst and Ukrainian military veteran Viktor Kovalenko Newsweek.

“However, Kiev continues to strike Russian troops in Ukraine and the Kursk region, suggesting that eliminating North Korean forces along these areas would not lead to an unusual escalation,” he added.

According to South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS), Kiev's announcement on Monday marks a months-long deployment of North Korean troops to the battlefield.

It was said that Seoul had already discovered the advance of North Korean troops into Russia on March 18. In early August, Kim Jong-sik, deputy director of North Korea's ammunition department, visited a KN-23 missile launch site near the Russian-Ukrainian front, according to North Korean military officers, the NIS added, according to a translation.

It was also found that North Korean special forces were sent to Russia via a Russian Navy transport ship, “confirming the beginning of the North Korean military's involvement in the war,” the NIS said.

Last month, White House national security spokesman John Kirby confirmed the troop deployment, saying they were transported by ship from North Korea's Wonsan region to eastern Russia between early and mid-October.

The NIS said landing ships and frigates moved around 1,500 North Korean special forces to Vladivostok, marking the first incursion by a Russian naval fleet into North Korean waters since 1990. Large Russian Air Force planes also flew between Vladivostok and Pyongyang.

According to the NIS, North Korean soldiers were deployed for training last month in Vladivostok as well as other Far Eastern cities such as Ussuriysk, Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk.

Meanwhile, on October 24, Kyodo News Agency quoted a Ukrainian military source as saying that 2,000 North Korean troops would be transported to western Russia after training in the first confirmed troop movement. NATO confirmed its presence on the battlefield on October 28.

Mark Montgomery, senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said the presence of North Korean troops would not have an immediate impact on Russia's combat effectiveness.

“What is killing the Ukrainians is Russian artillery, and by that I actually mean North Korean artillery,” he said Newsweek, referring to the millions of rounds of ammunition that Pyongyang has supplied Moscow. North Korean troops “are a problem, but at the current rate of burning 1,100 people per day, that’s only 10 days of fighting.”

Newsweek the Russian Defense Ministry has asked for comment.