Approximately 4,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded while fighting Ukrainian troops in Russia, with minimal battlefield gains to show for it and ongoing battles with language and cultural barriers, according to the UK Ministry of Defense.
The losses, which include those missing and captured, account for about a third of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s 11,000-member deployment to Russia’s Kursk region, which began in October, and confirm estimates made by Ukrainian officials.
About 1,000 of them were killed in action.
“The high rate of DPRK losses in a short time period has almost certainly significantly deteriorated DPRK forces’ capacity to conduct offensive combat operations in support of Russia’s attempts to push Ukrainian forces out of Kursk,” the Defense Ministry said in a social media post Friday.
Ukraine seized a portion of the Kursk region in August, prompting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un to send soldiers to aid Russia, whose February 2022 invasion of Ukraine kicked off the three-year war.
The North Korean troops, many of whom are easy targets and inexperienced in combat, are “almost certainly” experiencing difficulties, the ministry said.
“The two forces do not share a common language and DPRK troops almost certainly have difficulties integrating into Russia’s command-and-control structure,” it added.
Some of the North Korean soldiers have reportedly chosen suicide over surrender in the face of brutal “human wave” attacks out of fear that their captures would be treated as treason back home.
Yet, North Korea is likely “accelerating preparations” to send even more troops to Russia, South Korea’s military said Friday.
With Post wires
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