At least 100 North Korean soldiers were killed and a thousand wounded in fighting with Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region, South Korea's National Intelligence Service revealed. Yonhap news agency said the high number of casualties, despite the few clashes, was attributed to “unfamiliarity with the open battlefield environment, the use of North Korean troops as front-line assault units and the lack of ability to respond to drone strikes.”
“Some of the estimated 11,000 North Korean troops deployed in the Kursk region (where Ukrainian forces have carried out an offensive since August this year) began to take part in actual fighting in December,” the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said during a closed-door meeting before the intelligence committee National Assembly.
“At least 100 people were killed in the fighting, and probably up to 1,000 were injured,” the NIS reported.
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High number of casualties despite a small number of clashes
Yonhap news agency said the high number of casualties, despite the small number of clashes, was attributed to “unfamiliarity with the open battlefield environment, the use of North Korean troops as frontline assault units, and the lack of ability to respond to drone strikes.”
The NIS noted that the first casualties among North Koreans had occurred as a result of November's Ukrainian missile attack and drones.
The “Khorne Group” recording is supposed to show Koreans during the fighting in the Kursk Oblast “Khorne Group”/Telegram
Threat to Ukraine, South Korea and Japan
Security service Ukraine announced on Wednesday that it had intercepted Russian conversations, which indicate significant losses of North Korean troops. At the beginning of the week, the press service of the Ukrainian military intelligence also reported that “at least 30 killed or injured“soldiers as a result of last weekend's fighting in the Kursk Oblast.
At the end of November, military intelligence in Kiev noticed that the DPRK army was on the side of the war Russia poses a threat to Ukraine, South Korea and Japanbecause “some North Korean servicemen will die in Ukraine, while others will return ready for modern combat operations and will be able to work as instructors in the DPRK army”, which consists of 1.5 million soldiers.
Main photo source: mil.ru