North Koreans Getting Picked Off as Reality of Their Existence Makes Them Unfit for a Modern Battlefield
If there were any illusions about North Korean troops being up to par with the demands of modern warfare, their experience in the Russia-Ukraine conflict have apparently brought those to a bitter end.
According to multiple reports, at least 100 of the 10,000 North Korean troops deployed to Russia to help fight in the conflict have been killed in combat.
Another nearly 1,000 have been injured, a South Korean lawmaker disclosed on Thursday, according to Reuters.
The lawmaker, Lee Seong-kweun, made the statement following a briefing by the country’s National Intelligence Service to the nation’s parliament.
“There was a report that there have been at least 100 deaths and the injured are approaching 1,000,” he said.
Moreover, the deaths and injuries were due to the untrained nature of the troops, according to a report in the U.K. Telegraph.
“The heavy losses were caused by North Korean soldiers’ lack of experience in drone warfare and their unfamiliarity with open terrain,” the paper said of Lee’s briefing.
“Some North Korean generals might be among the casualties and the Russian military has allegedly described North Korean soldiers as ‘burdens’ on the battlefield due to their ignorance of drones, Mr Lee said.”
At least 50 of the troops who were killed, Ukrainian Special Operations Forces said, perished in an operation disclosed via social media app Telegram on Dec. 17, South Korea’s Chosun Daily reported.
“Soldiers of the 8th Regiment of the SSO of the Armed Forces of Ukraine organized a warm welcome for North Korean troops in the Kursk region,” they said in a caption accompanying a video of the drones targeting the soldiers.
“The video, around one minute and seven seconds long, shows Ukrainian drones conducting over 20 bomb attacks on soldiers presumed to be North Korean,” the paper reported.
“The footage captures soldiers crossing a snow-covered field before being struck by drones. Several are seen fleeing the attacks, one unsuccessfully taking cover behind a tree and others carrying away the bodies of the dead.”
“North Korean troops began launching large-scale assault operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region last week,” Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate, told U.S. outlet The War Zone, per Chosun Daily.
He claimed that during these operations, over 200 of the North Korean soldiers had been killed. Whether the discrepancy is due to asymmetrical information from intelligence services or Ukraine’s willingness to use losses to propagandize is a matter best left to those with top-secret clearance, although Lee did note that U.S. intelligence sources have been saying several hundred were killed and that his country’s NIS has been relatively conservative in its estimates of deaths and injuries.
Whatever the case, it’s safe to say that the losses have been far from insignificant.
North Korean troops were initially called in to shore up the Kursk region of Russia, which was the first major Ukrainian advance into Russian territory when Kyiv’s forces occupied part of the region in August and have managed to keep some of their gains.
Moreover, the North Korean troops don’t necessarily seem to be helpful to the cause.
“North Korean forces suffered significant losses near the villages of Plekhovo, Borozba, and Martynovka in the Kursk region on Dec. 14 and 15, at least 30 soldiers killed or wounded,” the Kyiv Post reported.
However, the troops are adjusting, according to Ukrainian intelligence.
“After suffering severe losses, DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] units began to set up additional observation posts to detect drones of the security and defence forces of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian military intelligence agency said.
Moreover, according to the U.K. Telegraph: “Despite the heavy losses, Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator, is reportedly planning an inspection of the country’s special operations force, which could be dispatched to Ukraine.” Reuters also reported that Lee said Kim Jong-un has been overseeing training for additional troop deployments to the region.
If it ends the way the first wave of deployments did, Russia might not be the only country that ends up getting embarrassed, militarily speaking, by their foray into Ukraine.
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