Officials say nearly 1,000 North Koreans killed fighting in Ukraine at Kursk
North Korean troops have already suffered almost 40% casualties in just three months of fighting in Russia’s western Kursk region, Western officials have told the BBC.
The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 4,000 of the estimated 11,000 troops sent from North Korea, known as the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), were battle casualties.
That term includes those killed, injured, missing or captured. Officials said about 1,000 of the 4,000 may have died by mid-January.
If confirmed, these losses are destabilizing for the North Korean people.
It is not clear where the injured are being treated, nor is it clear when or to what extent they will be replaced.
But the data suggests President Vladimir Putin’s ally Kim Jong Un is paying an unusually high price as he tries to force Russia to expel Ukrainian forces ahead of any potential ceasefire talks at the end of the year. Want to help them.
Ukraine launched a lightning strike in the Russian region of Kursk last August, surprising Russian border guards.
The government in Kiev made it clear at the time that it had no intention of holding onto the seized territory, only using it as a bargaining chip in future peace talks.
Ukraine’s initial advance at Kursk has since been steadily pushed back, partly due to the arrival of North Koreans into Russia in October.
But Ukraine still occupies several hundred square kilometers of Russian territory and is inflicting heavy losses on its enemy.
It appears that the North Korean soldiers, reportedly from an “elite” unit called the Storm Corps, have been thrown into battle with comparatively little training or protection.
“These are barely trained soldiers led by Russian officers they don’t understand,” says Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army tank commander.
“Clearly they have no chance. They are being thrown into a meat grinder with very little chance of survival. They are cannon fodder, and the Russian authorities care less about them than their own people. “
South Korean intelligence reports say the North Koreans are unprepared for the realities of modern warfare, and appear particularly vulnerable to being targeted by Ukrainian first-person-view (FPV) drones, a weapon Which has been a familiar part of the war zone. Southward into the Donbass region of Ukraine for several years.
Despite this, Ukraine’s top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, warned earlier this week that North Korean troops were posing a significant problem for Ukrainian fighters on the front lines.
“They are innumerable. An additional 11,000-12,000 highly motivated and well-prepared soldiers who are carrying out offensive actions. They operate on the basis of Soviet tactics. They operate in platoons, companies. They rely on their numbers ,” the general told Ukraine’s TSN Tysden. News Programme.
