At least 100 North Koreans killed in Ukraine war, South Korea says

At least 100 North Korean soldiers have been killed in combat in the Ukraine war since they entered combat on the Russian side earlier this month, a South Korean parliamentarian said.

Lee Sung-kwon, speaking to reporters after the country’s National Intelligence Service briefed parliament, said another 1,000 people had been injured.

He said the casualties included high-ranking officials and could be explained by troops’ unfamiliarity with the terrain and with drone warfare.

The first reports of North Korean casualties came earlier this week.. In October it emerged that the North had sent 10,000 troops to help Russia’s war effort.

On Monday, a U.S. Pentagon spokesman said North Koreans had been killed, without giving a figure, and a day later, an unnamed U.S. official said there were “several hundred” dead or wounded.

The BBC has not independently verified the claims.

The North Korean troops, none of whom will have previous combat experience, are believed to have spent their first weeks in Russia training and then performing support roles.

The casualties are believed to have occurred in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainians are defending a small area of ​​territory captured during a Surprise raid in August.

Last Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had begun using a “significant number” of North Koreans in its attacks in Kursk.

They are not believed to have been deployed in Ukraine itself, where Russian troops have been advancing in the eastern parts of the country in recent months.

Lee Sung-kwon said there were reports of preparations for additional deployment and that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un could oversee the training.

It cited intelligence officials as saying the high casualty toll could be attributed to an “unknown battlefield environment, where North Korean forces are being used as expendable frontline assault units, and their lack of ability to counter attacks with unmanned aircraft.

“Within the Russian military, complaints have reportedly arisen that North Korean troops, due to their lack of knowledge about drones, are more of a liability than an asset,” he added.

Neither Russia nor the North has acknowledged the troop deployments, but a North Korean statement Thursday carried by state news agency KCNA said the country’s alliance with Moscow was “deterring the United States and the West from extending their ill-intentioned influence.”