North Korea is claimed to have suffered more than 1,000 casualties since soldiers were sent to aid Russian forces fighting Ukraine, and now it is believed more troops are to be sent
Ukraine launches apparent attack on North Korean soldiers
North Korea is set to send more troops and kamikaze drones to Russia after suffering more than 1,000 casualties in fighting in Ukraine.
Since dictator Kim Jung-un began sending North Koreans to help Vladimir Putin’s war effort, they have suffered heavy losses. A Ukrainian special operations crew claimed to have killed 77 and wounded 40 North Korean soldiers in three days in Kursk region.
Graphic footage claims to show the alleged assault on Kim Jong-un’s forces in a field inside Russia by the Ukrainian special operations team.
And with around 100 North Koreans now believed to have been killed and a further 1,000 injured, South Korean intelligence has warned that more soldiers are being sent, reported Yonhap news agency.
“A comprehensive assessment of multiple intelligence shows that North Korea is preparing to rotate or increase the deployment of troops [in Russia] while currently supplying 240-millimetre rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery,” said the Joint Chiefs of Staff of South Korea.
“There are also some signs of [the North] moving to manufacture and supply suicide drones, first unveiled during [dictator] Kim Jong-un’s on-site inspection in November.”
Vladimir Putin has become reliant on up to 12,000 North Korean troops sent to Russia’s Kursk region where they are deployed to seek to push out Ukrainian troops. The Russian leader remains sensitive about admitting to his people the extent to which he is using Kim’s forces in exchange for cash, oil and sophisticated arms supplies.
The ID documents of dead North Koreans show them with fake names and imply they were born in Russia’s Tuva region. One was falsely listed as a roofer from Tuva, a mountainous area of Siberia.
Dead North Koreans named Ban Guk Jin, Lee Dae Hyuk, and Cho Cheol Ho show in their ID documents as Kim Kang Solat Albertovich, Dongnk Dzhan Suropovich, and Belek Aganak Kap-oolovich – evidently to mask that they were North Korean, according to Ukraine’s special operations force.
The signatures of the fallen troops show that they were North Korean, according to the Ukrainians. Separately, it was reported that the Russians are “burning” the faces of dead North Koreans, to hide their features. Trains have been seen in recent days crossing Russia towards the war zone, including those loaded with M1989 Koksan self-propelled guns.
Also transferred are 122mm and 152mm artillery shells and the latest Hwasong-11 class ballistic missiles [KN-23 and KN-24]. Ukrainian officials say more than five million artillery shells and dozens of missiles, including more than 100 Hwasong-11 class missiles have been delivered to Russia. Train traffic is reported to be at a record scale from North Korea to Russia.