South Korea says North Korean forces have suffered 100 casualties while struggling in the drone war

Written by Jack Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – At least 100 North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia were killed and 1,000 others wounded fighting against Ukrainian forces in heavy fighting in the Kursk region, a South Korean lawmaker said on Thursday, citing South Korea’s Central Intelligence Agency.

Member of Parliament Lee Seung-kwon told reporters that the heavy losses were due to the North Korean forces’ lack of experience in drone warfare and their unfamiliarity with the open terrain in which they were engaged in battle.

Lee was speaking after a closed press conference given to Parliament by the National Intelligence Service.

He told me that the discrepancy between estimates of the number of troops killed and the estimate given by a US military official who spoke of several hundred casualties was due to the relatively conservative analysis conducted by the National Intelligence Service.

He added: “There is a report that there are at least 100 dead and that the number of wounded is close to a thousand.”

Lee said there are indications that the North is preparing to deploy more troops, including intelligence on Korean leader Kim Jong Un overseeing the training.

The report echoed comments by US and Ukrainian officials that North Korean losses are heavy and that Russia is using them in large numbers in attacks on Kursk, a Russian region where Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion in August.

More than 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to help Russia in the war, according to US and South Korean officials. Pyongyang also shipped more than 10,000 containers of artillery shells and anti-tank missiles, as well as automatic howitzers and rocket launchers.

Neither North Korea nor Russia has officially acknowledged the deployment of troops or weapons supplies.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang in June and signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which included a joint defense agreement.

Earlier on Thursday, North Korea said its military alliance with Russia had proven to be “very effective” in deterring the United States and its “affiliated forces,” denouncing the recent statement by Washington and its allies against relations between Pyongyang and Moscow.

North Korea did not mention its participation in the war in Ukraine or any casualties.

Instead, it denounced the statement issued by the United States, nine countries and the European Union on Monday as “distorting and slandering the essence of normal cooperative relations” between the North and Russia.

In a statement by an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman, North Korea accused Washington and its allies of prolonging the Ukrainian war and destabilizing the security situation in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

He added: “This is due to the misguided actions of the United States and the West represented by the continuation of their destructive military policy directed towards hegemony and adventurism.”