About 1,000 North Koreans killed fighting Ukraine in Kursk, officials say

Western officials have revealed to the BBC that North Korean troops have suffered nearly 40% casualties in just three months of fighting in the Kursk region of western Russia. These officials, speaking anonymously, stated that out of approximately 11,000 soldiers sent from North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea), 4,000 have been combat casualties.

“Combat casualties” include those killed, wounded, missing, or captured. According to officials, approximately 1,000 of these 4,000 are believed to have been killed before mid-January. If these losses are confirmed, they would be unsustainable for North Korea. It remains unclear where the wounded are being treated, or when and to what extent they will be replaced.

These figures suggest that Kim Jong-un, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is paying a very high price in his attempt to help Putin drive Ukrainian forces out of Russia before a possible ceasefire negotiation later this year. Ukraine launched a lightning attack on Russia's Kursk region last August, catching Russian border forces by surprise. The Kyiv government made it clear at the time that it had no intention of retaining the occupied territory, but rather to use it as a bargaining chip in future peace talks.

Ukraine's early advances in Kursk were later gradually pushed back, partly due to the arrival of North Korean troops in Russia in October. However, Ukraine still retains hundreds of square kilometers of Russian territory and has inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. These North Korean soldiers reportedly come from an "elite" unit called the "Storm Corps," and appear to have been thrown into battle without adequate training or protection. "These soldiers are barely trained, led by Russian officers they don't understand," said Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army tank commander. "Frankly, they don't stand a chance. They are being put through the meat grinder with little chance of survival. They are cannon fodder, and the Russian officers care even less about them than they do their own soldiers."

According to reports from South Korean intelligence, the North Koreans are unprepared for the realities of modern warfare and appear to be particularly vulnerable to Ukrainian First-Person View (FPV) drones, a weapon that has been part of the southern Donbas battlefield in Ukraine for years. Nevertheless, Ukraine's top military commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, warned earlier this week that North Korean soldiers are posing significant problems for Ukrainian fighters on the front lines. "They are numerous. There are also 11,000 to 12,000 active and well-prepared soldiers conducting offensive operations. They operate according to Soviet tactics. They operate in platoons, companies. They rely on their numbers," the general said on the Ukrainian TSN Tyzhden news program.