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At least 100 North Korean soldiers recently deployed to Russia have been killed and 1,000 wounded in fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukraine recently seized, a lawmaker said Thursday, citing a report by South Korea’s intelligence agency.
The heavy casualties are due to North Korean troops’ lack of experience in drone warfare and their unfamiliarity with the open terrain they are fighting in, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seung-kyun told reporters after a closed-door briefing by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service in parliament.
The discrepancy in the estimate of North Korean troops killed from a U.S. military official who cited several hundred casualties was due to relatively conservative analysis by the National Intelligence Service, he said, and there were indications that North Korea was preparing to deploy additional forces to Russia, including intelligence that the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, was overseeing the training.
The South Korean intelligence report confirmed comments by U.S. and Ukrainian officials that North Korean casualties were heavy and that Russia was using them in large numbers in attacks in Kursk, a Russian region where Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion in August 2024.
More than 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to help Russia in the war, according to U.S. and South Korean officials.
North Korea has also sent more than 10,000 containers of artillery shells and anti-tank missiles, as well as automatic howitzers and rocket launchers. Neither North Korea nor Russia has officially acknowledged the deployment or the weapons supplies.
On Thursday, North Korea said its military alliance with Russia had proven highly effective in deterring the United States and its proxy forces, denouncing a recent statement by the United States and its allies against its relationship with Russia.
North Korea did not mention its involvement in the war in Ukraine or the casualties.
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