If North Korea's elite troops expected an easy campaign against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region, they have faced a harsh reality on the ground.
Nearly 1,100 North Korean special forces have been killed or wounded in Russia since they began fighting in Ukraine several weeks ago, South Korea's National Intelligence Service reported on December 19. A general is reported to be among the dead.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on December 23 that the figure is higher, more than 3,000 or a quarter of North Korean special forces were sent to Russia, although the Ukrainian leader said that these figures are preliminary. Radio Free Europe has not been able to confirm any of the reported figures.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, however, does not appear to be fazed by the losses. The authoritarian leader is reportedly doubling down on his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin in exchange for critical supplies of oil, cash and military technology.
Zelensky said on December 23 that North Korea may send more troops and weapons to the front. South Korea's General Staff backed the prediction, saying Pyongyang is preparing to rotate troops or supply Russia with additional troops.
North Korea's military support is coming at a critical time in the war. Russia is aiming to overwhelm the Ukrainian infantry, which has fewer soldiers and resources, and gain territory before its manpower and resources are limited.
Russia has lost more than 600,000 soldiers during the nearly 3-year war, the Pentagon said in October. Moscow has spent most of its war materiel and is struggling to replace the artillery and missiles it needs because of Western sanctions.
Now, almost two-thirds of the mortars and grenades that Russia fires at Ukraine come from North Korea, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian army officer. And one in three ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine was produced in North Korea, according to Ukrainian officials.
Pyongyang is ramping up arms production to meet Russia's growing demand, experts said.
Russian troops are now gaining ground in eastern Ukraine at the fastest pace since the war began. Kiev launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk region in August, seizing swathes of Russian territory in the hope of drawing enemy forces from eastern Ukraine. That has yet to happen, thanks in part to North Korea's supply of troops.
The departure of North Korean troops to Russia in October was initially seen as an act of desperation on the part of Puin, who was forced to raise wages sharply to attract new recruits.
However, The New York Times reported on December 23, citing US officials, that it was North Korea that offered troops to Russia and Putin accepted the idea. It is unclear when Kim made the offer.
Putin traveled to Pyongyang and met with Kim in June. During the summit, the two leaders agreed on a strategic treaty that includes mutual defense. Putin signed this treaty into law in November.
Supplying troops to Russia could help Kim avoid sanctions on technology and materials for military use. North Korea has been hit by international sanctions since it conducted its first nuclear test in 2006.
North Korea has not engaged in active warfare for decades. Thus, its military troops – which number over 1 million – have no combat experience. The deployment to Ukraine is one way for Kim and his military to capitalize on that experience.
However, Kim's troops are ill-prepared for the trench warfare, with heavy use of drones and missiles, that they are facing in Ukraine, experts said.
Hyunseung Lee, a North Korean citizen who for three and a half years in the 2000s was part of a surveillance battalion before defecting, told Radio Free Europe last month that North Korean troops "don't train with these devices".
He said that they cannot quickly learn the use of drones and high-tech equipment in such a short period of time.
Videos circulating on social media show Ukrainian kamikaze drones striking and killing North Korean soldiers in the snow-covered fields of Kursk.
Commenting on the videos, Lee wrote in X on December 19 that the footage was a "sad and predictable outcome".
Modern warfare technology is not the only factor leading to the large-scale death of North Korean soldiers, according to the Institute for the Study of War. The Washington-based think tank said North Korean soldiers are facing difficulties communicating and coordinating with Russian forces because of language barriers.
Perhaps most importantly, the North Koreans are now launching their first open-field assault on Ukrainian positions, the Institute for the Study of War said. Some military experts call this fighting tactic "meat for cannon" as it causes heavy loss of life among the soldiers involved in these operations.
Yevgen Yerin, spokesman for Ukraine's military intelligence service, told AFP news agency on December 24 that Russia's use of North Korean troops has not had a major impact on the battlefield.
"It's not such a large number of personnel," he said, adding that they use tactics that are "primitive, more related to World War II times." REL (A2 Televizion)
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