At least 100 of the North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia have been killed and another 1 000 wounded in intense fighting against Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region, MP Lee Seong-kweun said on Thursday, the 19th of December, citing information from the National Intelligence Service (NIS), reports Reuters.
The high death toll is attributed to North Korean soldiers’ lack of experience in drone warfare and their unfamiliarity with the terrain in which they are fighting.
“At least 100 deaths were reported and the number of wounded is approaching 1 000,” he said.
A US military official previously said the number of dead North Korean soldiers could be in the hundreds, but the NIS has done a relatively conservative analysis, so estimates vary, Lee said.
Lee said intelligence suggests North Korea is preparing to send additional forces to the battlefield,
including that the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, is overseeing the training.
The report echoed comments by US and Ukrainian officials that North Korea had lost many soldiers and that Russia was using them in large numbers in attacks in Kursk.
North Korea has sent more than 10 000 troops and large arms shipments to support Russia in the war, according to US and South Korean officials. Both countries have officially denied these allegations.
Earlier on Thursday, North Korea said its military alliance with Russia had proved “very effective” in deterring the US and its “vassal forces”, condemning a recent statement by Washington and allies against Pyongyang-Moscow relations.
North Korea did not mention its involvement in the war in Ukraine or the casualties.
Instead, it condemned Monday’s statement by the US, the European Union and nine other countries as a “distortion and slander of the essence of normal cooperative relations” between North Korea and Russia.
In its statement, released by an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman, North Korea blames Washington and its allies for prolonging the Ukrainian war and destabilising the security situation in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
“This is because the US and the West continue to pursue their destructive, hegemony-oriented and adventurous military policies,” the statement said.