About 1,000 North Koreans killed while battling Ukraine in Kursk

About 1,000 North Koreans killed while battling Ukraine in Kursk

Western authorities have informed the BBC that in just three months of battle in Russia‘s west Kursk region, North Korean forces had suffered about 40% losses.

The authorities, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, indicated that 4,000 of the estimated 11,000 troops dispatched from North Korea, also known as the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), were killed in battle.

That word refers to people who have been slain, injured, missing, or captured. Officials assume that by mid-January, around 1,000 of the 4,000 had died.

These losses, if confirmed, are unsustainable for the North Koreans.

It is unclear where the wounded are being treated or when and to what degree they will be replaced.

However, the data show that President Vladimir Putin‘s buddy, Kim Jong Un, is incurring an exceptionally high cost in his efforts to assist him in evicting the Ukrainian military from Russia ahead of any potential ceasefire discussions later this year.

Last August, Ukraine launched a surprise attack on the Russian oblast of Kursk, shocking Russian border troops.

The Kyiv administration made it plain that it did not intend to keep the gained land but to use it as a bargaining chip in future peace talks.

Ukraine’s early gains in Kursk have subsequently been slowly eroded, owing in part to the entrance of North Koreans into Russia in October.

But Ukraine still controls several hundred square kilometres of Russian territory and is inflicting massive casualties on its adversary.

The North Korean forces, apparently from an “elite” squad known as the Storm Corps, appear to have been pushed into battle with no training or protection.

“These are barely trained troops led by Russian officers who they don’t understand,” says Col Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, a former British Army tank commander.

“Quite simply, they don’t have a chance. They’re being pushed into the meat grinder, with little prospect of survival. They are cannon fodder, and Russian officers care even less about them than they do about their own soldiers.”

According to South Korean intelligence reports, 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. This weapon has long been a part of the battle space further south in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Despite this, Ukraine’s senior military commander, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, warned earlier this week that North Korean forces posed a substantial threat to Ukrainian combatants on the front lines.

“They’re numerous. An extra 11,000-12,000 highly motivated and well-prepared soldiers perform offensive operations. They follow Soviet techniques. They operate in platoons and companies. “They rely on their numbers,” the general told Ukraine’s TSN Tyzhden television channel.

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