This article was originally published by Radio Free Asia and is reprinted with permission.
Up to half of the North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region might have been wounded or killed in battle over recent weeks, said a U.S. expert, amid reports that North Korea is preparing to send more troops to help its ally Russia.
As many as 12,000 North Korean soldiers are in Russia to fight Ukraine forces who occupied parts of Kursk in August, according to Ukraine and the United States.
Neither North Korea nor Russia has acknowledged their presence but reports began emerging from Ukrainian, South Korean and U.S. sources in early December of the North Koreans engaging in combat in Kursk.
“By most accounts, we were able to take a look at somewhere between a third and probably on the real high-end, maybe 50% casualties among the North Korean forces,” said Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, during the center’s podcast on Tuesday.
“The casualty rates were significant.”
Radio Free Asia has not been able to independently verify the casualty numbers.
Jones said that Russia was using waves of troops in pursuit of progress on the battlefield.
“Their way of retaking territory is to conduct attrition warfare and to take casualties and to accept those casualties,” he said, adding that is the way Russia has utilized North Korean forces.
Citing conversations with Ukrainian forces, Jones said that North Korean soldiers in Kursk were “fierce fighters” who were willing to “fight and die,” but somewhat disorganized.
“The cohesion between North Korean and Russian forces, including command and control, was apparently poor. There were language barriers,” he added.
Jones’ remarks came after reports that North Korea may send additional troops to Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia may attempt to deploy an additional 20,000 to 25,000 North Korean soldiers, while South Korea said in January the North was accelerating preparations to send more troops to Russia.
Ukraine estimates about 4,000 of the up to 12,000 North Korean troops dispatched to Kursk late last year had been killed or wounded.
A Washington-based think tank reported in January that North Korea could lose all of its troops aiding Russia within three months if the high casualty rate persisted.
According to the Institute for the Study of War, North Korean forces have likely sustained approximately 92 casualties per day since engaging in significant combat in early December.
North Koreans in frontline
In recent days, media has reported that North Korean troops had been taken off the front lines, and South Korea’s spy agency said on Tuesday that North Koreans in the contested region had not shown any sign of participating in combat since January.
But Ukraine’s intelligence chief disputed such reports and said North Koreans were still fighting on the front lines in Kursk.
Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency, said about 8,000 North Koreans were still fighting against Ukraine, but at a reduced capacity.
“We have to wait some time to see if there are any real changes or if this is just lower activities for a couple of days,” said Budanov during an interview with defense and security publication The War Zone.
A Ukrainian Special Operations Forces spokesman also updated his earlier remarks to the media about North Koreans “not seen in Kursk for three weeks” by saying: “The Special Operations Forces provide information only about the front where our units are active.”
