U.S. officials report that North Korean casualties in Ukraine have reached approximately 1,000. The possibility of further troop deployments has not been ruled out. Intelligence suggests that the North Korean contingent has had minimal impact on the conflict due to subpar equipment and inadequate training.
Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh confirmed the recent White House reports during a briefing on Monday. The report stated that roughly 1,000 North Korean troops have been killed or wounded in the Kursk region. Singh emphasized that North Korean operations in the area have been ineffective and have resulted in substantial losses.
She reiterated that an estimated 12,000 North Korean troops have been deployed, reaffirming the growing alliance between Pyongyang and Moscow. She could not confirm additional deployments but did not rule out the possibility in the future. A senior defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to Radio Free Asia (RFA), expressed intrigue at the lack of further deployments despite the high casualty rate.
Reports of friction between Russian and North Korean forces have persisted since October. RBC Ukraine recently published interrogation records of captured Russian soldiers. The soldiers described their North Korean counterparts as undisciplined and highlighted the severe communication barriers. The NGO InformNapalm shared Telegram footage featuring a Russian POW on Monday. The POW detailed the dangerous incidents stemming from language difficulties, including friendly fire.
In an RFA interview on Friday, Ukraine’s 8th Separate Special Operations Regiment officer Mykhailo Makaryuk reported recovering North Korean bodies in the Kursk region. He noted that most were equipped with outdated Kalashnikov rifles and lacked modern communication gear or combat rations. At the beginning of this month, Ukrainian military intelligence claimed that food shortages among North Korean troops were so dire that Russia had dispatched a general to Kursk to address the issue.
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