According to a Daily NK source in North Korea recently, the selection of personnel to be sent to Russia has already reached the third stage, while within the military, guidelines have been issued stating that “some technical specialists could be dispatched after assigning them a civilian identity.”
Russia has reportedly told North Korea that anyone capable of drudgework, such as drone assembly, parts arrangement and transportation, can come. The two sides have agreed that Russia will lead general production based on key technologies, while North Korean personnel will handle secondary and tertiary assembly, assist in production, and verify that the produced drones operate correctly.
In selecting personnel, however, North Korea has prioritized personnel with experience in soldering, low-voltage engineering and repairs. This suggests North Korea aims to go beyond merely providing warm bodies and absorb drone production technology and expertise from Russia, the source said.
Military technicians to be reidentified as Cabinet-affiliated civilian workers
North Korea has even drawn up plans to send military technicians and skilled workers from munition plants after re-identifying them as civilian workers affiliated with the Cabinet.
North Korea previously dispatched army engineers and recovery personnel to the Kursk and Donetsk regions. However, it plans to deploy drone production personnel under a completely separate command structure from the military’s.
“The engineering and recovery personnel sent to Kursk and Donetsk were a typical military deployment directly managed by the Ministry of Defense and General Staff Department, but the drone production personnel will be sent under a completely different structure — military specialists will be given civilian identities and sent as foreign-currency earners affiliated with trading companies or the Cabinet,” the source said.
“By doing so, the outside world will find it difficult to determine whether the personnel constitute military support or a mere dispatch of labor,” the source said. “The military clearly wants to cover up traces that it was directly involved.”
Some people speculate that those selected to participate in Russia’s drone production will be dispatched by the end of the year, but as for now, the authorities are still selecting personnel and conducting training, including drawing up their list of selectees, sorting assignments and preparing basic training on drone assembly and testing.
“No order on the final stage — such as issuing passports and seeking cooperation with the Foreign Ministry — has been issued,” the source said. “You could say the authorities have moved past the initial dispatch preparation stage and are in an intermediate stage.”
Before this, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense revealed in a Telegram message that Russia planned to bring 12,000 North Koreans to the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Russia’s Tatarstan region by the end of the year to produce suicide drones.
December 23, 2025 at 06:37AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)