North Korean troops deployed in Kursk to support Russia begin to suffer their first casualties. According to a recent report by the South Korean spy agency published this Thursday, at least 100 soldiers from North Korea have lost their lives after arriving in Russia and at least 1,000 have suffered injuries.
“They have become Putin’s cannon fodder,” says Edward Howell, a member of the Korea Foundation, quoted by . The Ukrainian president also agrees on this aspect. “Russia not only sends North Korean troops to assault Ukrainian positions, but also tries to hide the losses of these people,” Zelensky underlines on ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter). “There is no single reason for North Koreans to fight and die for Putin“concludes the Ukrainian president.
According to the South Korean Intelligence Service (NIS), the North Koreans are primarily acting as frontline assault troops. Furthermore, the news agency Yonhap maintains that there have been signs that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un, plans to train a special operations group that will later be transferred to Ukraine. From the Pentagon, Major General Pat Ryder also supports this information. “They suffered both casualties and injuries”explains the American.
Some of the factors that may have had an impact on the high rate of North Korean deaths (which reaches almost 10% of the total deployed in Russia) have been the lack of combat preparation, caused by the rapid inclusion of the ranks in the conflict, the lack of knowledge of the terrain, the lack of understanding derived from the difference in languages and the different ways of operating in combat. Furthermore, as mentioned above, Putin is believed to be using these troops as “cannon fodder” for the most risky operations so as not to lose Russian soldiers.
