North Korea has no shortage of soldiers
North Korea is providing at least 1,500 soldiers to Russia to fight alongside them against Ukraine. It can easily spare those soldiers, as Kim Jong-un has one of the largest armies in the world.
According to an estimate by the British think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies, the North Korean army has an estimated 1.28 million soldiers. Only the armies of China, India and the United States are larger.
Besides the army, North Korea can also count on 600,000 reservists and 5.7 million paramilitaries, the think tank estimates. A third of North Korea's population would be deployable in this way if the country became embroiled in a war. A quarter of its gross domestic product, between $7 billion and $11 billion (about €6.5 billion to €10 billion), would also go to defence, according to estimates.
(HL/Source: IISS, De Morgen/Illustration picture: DPA picture alliance / YONHAPNEWS AGENCY | Yonhap)