Why are North Korean troops being destroyed in Ukraine?

The North Korean army is one of the largest in the world. By joining Russia’s war against Ukraine, its soldiers are paying a heavy price for Kim Jong-un’s geopolitical maneuvers. But why are they suffering such heavy casualties? And why are they subject to this?

North Korean troops will be attacking Ukrainian positions in the Russian region of Kursk with useless mass and foot attacksrevealed this Friday the spokesman for the White House National Security Council, John Kirby.

North Korean soldiers are “highly indoctrinatedpromoting attacks even when It is clear that these attacks are useless”, diz Kirby.

Some of these soldiers subject themselves to suicide attacks, possibly because they fear reprisals for their families if they are captured as prisoners of war, resulting in “heavy casualties” for North Korean troops serving Moscow, he adds.

So why are North Korean troops suffer such heavy casualties on the frontline of the Ukraine war?

For years, explains the , North Korean armed forces helped their leader, Kim Jong-unto maintain control over its people and to form a barrier against South Koreahis declared enemy.

Com 1.3 million soldiersthe North’s army is among the largest conventional armed forces in the world.

Now, with more than 11,000 North Korean soldiers fighting Alongside Russian forces against Ukraine, the North Korean army is playing a more prominent role in Kim’s geopolitical move to obtain much needed money and diplomatic influence.

The troops that North Korea sent belong to your “Storm” Bodyspecial forces that are among the best trained and indoctrinated in the army. But from drones and into the unknown terrain far from their isolated homeland.

More than 100 of them were killed and 1,000 others were injured in the first battles, the South Korean intelligence agency said last week.

According to this agency, Kim Jong-un sees Europe’s biggest conflict since the Second World War as an opportunity to advance his own military and diplomatic ambitions and appears to be now preparing to send more troops for Russia.

What are the weaknesses of North Korean troops?

Northern special forces were trained primarily for intelligence missions. snipers, urban warfare and infiltrations by sea, air and through Korea’s many mountains.

They weren’t trained enough for drone and trench warfare fought on terrain like the Russia-Ukraine front line, which is mostly open and flat, explains Doo Jin-hosenior analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis in Seoul, told the NYT.

At the time of the pandemic, when North Korea closed its activities, your special forces entered and left guard posts along the country’s border with China, missing part of your regular trainingdisse Doo.

Furthermore, the deployment of North Korean troops to Ukraine was so hasty that it may take some time for Russia to integrate them correctly in their armed forces, explain South Korean secret service officials.

North Korean soldiers were thrown into battle after having learned only a handful of military termssuch as “open fire”, “artillery” and “in position” in Russian, which can create communication problems on the battlefield, they said.

“The North Korean military had no combat experience live for decades”, says Ahn Can’t former North Korean army sergeant who lives in South Korea. “The troops must have had a crash course in drones and infantry warfare, but the question is knowing how familiar are they therefore.”

Who is in charge?

Once considered by some outside observers to be young and inexperienced, the country’s leader, Kim Jong-unhas proven himself to be a strong commander in chief who governs with what the South Korean government called “reign of terror“.

His father and predecessor in the Kim dynasty that has ruled the country since its official foundation in 1948, Kim Jong Ilwho led his country with an iron fist and a policy “military first”relied on the Korean People’s Army to hold the country together following a hunger crisis in the 1990s.

In return, Kim Jong-il allowed the Army absorbed resources of the State and carry out profitable operations, such as miningfishing and smuggling.

When Kim Jong-un took power after his father’s death in 2011, he began to subjugate military elites by banishing or executing generals top; In his first five years in power, he led North Korean policy.

In 2015, General Hyon Yong-cholthen Defense Minister, was executed with an anti-aircraft gun after falling asleep in Kim’s presence, according to South Korean intelligence.

In 2017, Kim removed Vice Marshal Hwang Pyong-sothe military’s top political officer. For two months, Hwang was forced to sweep the courtyard in front of a party building in Pyongyang, said Lee Ilkyu, a North Korean diplomat in Cuba who defected to Seoul last year.

North Korean officials live in constant fearbecause they don’t know when they can be victims of Kim Jong-un’s impulsivenessLee added.

External analysts closely observe those who accompany Kim on his visits to military units and weapons testing sites, to see if there are signs of who may be in his favor or not.

In September, analysts began to notice two new faces in the circle of senior officials surrounding Kim: Colonel General Kim Yong book is Colonel-General Ri Chang-ho. Their importance to Kim Jong-un became clear when they later accompanied troops to Russia.

Kim Yong-bok was identified as special forces commander of the North during a military parade in 2017. Ri Chang-ho headed the military’s General Reconnaissance Office, which is involved in the arms tradecybercrime and other illicit activities to fatten Kim Jong-un’s coffers.

On Monday, the United States and its allies placed the two generals in blacklisted for his role in Russia’s war. They join other senior members of the North Korean government already blacklisted under United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Dying for a higher status

There are other factors at play behind the apparent voluntarism with which North Korean troops are subjected to heavy casualties and the “useless mass and foot attacks” mentioned by Kirby.

Part of the soldiers sent to Russia come from poor families. The opportunity to go abroad and the prospect of making money can be strong incentives, says the NYT. Maybe also being able to access porn content for the first time, we could add on a lighter note.

According to the South Korean information agency, Russia pays up to 2,000 dollars (about 1,900 euros) per month for each North Korean soldier, but it is likely that the North Korean government ends up keeping most of the money.

Even so, the part of the pay that goes to combatants can be, for a common soldier, a huge amount.

North Korea Tried to increase troop morale who fight on the front lines, promising them arequest admission as members of the Party of Workers, a highly coveted status symbol, says Kim Seongmina former North Korean army captain who runs a radio station in the South.

“The troops had little hope for their future in the North”, he adds Kim Kwang-Jinanother North Korean defector, who works as a senior analyst at the government-run Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul.

“They go there risking their lives, but also see this as an opportunity to make money and, if they are killed, to raise the social status of their family to that of the war dead.”

E, even though the North Koreans suffered heavy casualtiesas is happening, the Kim Jong-un’s totalitarian control it would make it impossible for the public to complain, defectors say.

“North Korea takes casualties for granted,” says Sim Ju-ilformer lieutenant colonel in the North Korean army, who now lives in Seoul. “You will consider them as a inevitable cost of acquiring experience in modern warfare, if he were to fight against the United States in Korea.”