Pyongyang is paying a heavy price for its alliance with Russia as casualties are mounting among North Korean soldiers deployed in offensive roles in the Ukraine-occupied Kursk Oblast region of Russia, as per the claims made by the UK’s Ministry of Defense.
“Democratic People’s Republic of Korea troops are currently engaged in offensive combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Kursk Oblast, Russia. DPRK troops have highly likely sustained significant combat casualties but so far only achieved tactical gains,” a defense intelligence update by the UK’s Ministry of Defense said on December 19.
The report further claimed that the DPRK soldiers are facing a host of issues in Russia. The top issues that are holding back North Korean soldiers are the lack of a common language and interoperability issues with the Russian forces.
“Russian and DPRK forces are almost certainly experiencing interoperability difficulties. The two forces do not share a common language, and DPRK troops almost certainly have difficulties integrating into Russia’s command and control structure,” the report said.
Commenting on the motives behind this partnership, the report said that while for Russia, “DPRK’s military support to their war in Ukraine has highly likely been the core driver for the partnership,” North Korea has secured a “trading partner willing to break sanctions.”
While reports of over 11,000 North Korean soldiers joining the Russian war effort have been coming since early October, they started fighting on the Kursk frontline in “significant numbers” only last week.
On December 14, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that the Russian army has started using soldiers from North Korea in assaults.
“Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults — a significant number of them,” Zelenskyy said in a video address.
“The Russians are integrating them into combined units and using them in operations in the areas of the Kursk region.”
Zelensky also said that North Korean units have sustained “noticeable losses” and that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “dragged another state into this war.”
“Losses in this category are already noticeable. In essence, Moscow has dragged another state into this war, and it has done so to the maximum extent. If this is not escalation, what is the escalation many have been discussing? It is Putin who is taking steps that broaden and prolong this war. It is he who is pushing away the possibility of peace,” Zelenskyy emphasized.
Conflicting Reports On The Impact Of North Korean Troops In Ukraine War
While the UK intelligence report has suggested that North Korean troops have only made small “tactical gains” despite suffering ‘heavy casualties,’ Russian war bloggers have commented that North Korean troops have already achieved a big success in Kursk by liberating a Ukraine-occupied village.
Russian military blogger Vladimir Romanov said on his Telegram channel that North Korean special forces took part in a battle in the village of Plekhovo in the Sudzhansky district of the Kursk region.
According to him, the DPRK special operations forces established control over the settlement in two hours, driving out units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“They passed through like a hurricane… The enemy lost more than 300 servicemen,” he claimed.
Military analyst Boris Rozhin also reported on the baptism of fire of the “North Korean comrades.” According to him, the event was so effective that the leader of the DPRK, Kim Jong-un, can be proud of his fellow citizens.
Military correspondent Yuri Kotenok reported that before the assault, North Korean fighters covered two kilometers of minefields. He also said that the whole operation lasted less than three hours.
North Korean Troops Caught In Information Warfare
From the conflicting reports on the role played by North Korean soldiers in the war so far, it is clear that DPRK troops are caught in the middle of a full-throttle information war, an essential part of modern psychological warfare.
While Ukrainian and Western media have often reported on high-casualty figures among DPRK troops even before they started taking an active role on the frontline, Russian media have tried to highlight the significant contribution made by North Korean troops.
Ever since the presence of North Korean soldiers in Kursk was reported in October, Ukrainian media outlets have reported heavy casualties among North Korean soldiers on multiple occasions. However, Kyiv has provided little evidence to back its claims.
In early November, pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel ‘ExileNova’ released a two-minute video titled “Warning from Kursk.” The video showed what is said to be an unnamed, badly wounded North Korean soldier who said he was the only survivor of a 40-man unit that was decimated by a Ukrainian artillery and drone attack in the Kursk region of Russia.
In the video, the badly wounded man, apparently an injured North Korean soldier, warned his compatriots at home not to come to Ukraine to fight Russia’s war.
In November last week, when Ukraine used a British-supplied Storm Shadow missile in the Kursk region. Kyiv claimed that a North Korean general was injured, and several officers sent by Pyongyang to Russia’s Kursk region were killed in the strike.
Last week, Kyiv Post also reported that wounded North Korean soldiers were discriminated against in Russian hospitals, and there was discontent among Russian nurses over the special treatment provided to North Korean soldiers.
“They’re elite, these Koreans, or what? We free up certain wards for them. They’re so privileged or something?” Kyiv Post quoted a Russian nurse as saying in an intercepted communication.
The alleged conversation between a Russian nurse and her husband also hinted at inherent racism in Russians against North Korean troops.
“They all look the same. How are we supposed to tell them apart? We might as well write on their foreheads with a marker,” she told her interlocutor. “What a zoo! Soon, there’ll be no one left to talk to. They’ll just mumble something in their gibberish. It’s crazy!”
Further, on December 18, President Zelenskyy claimed that to hide the high casualties among North Korean soldiers, Russian troops were burning their faces so they couldn’t be identified.
“While they were being trained, they were forbidden even to show their faces. Any video evidence of their presence was erased by Russian forces. And now, after battles with our troops, the Russians are even trying to… literally burn the faces of the killed North Korean soldiers,” Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel.
Understandably, such reports are part of an information war where such information is used to sow doubt among your adversary and dampen their spirits.
Similarly, Russian war bloggers have claimed that North Koreans achieved massive success in their first conflict and killed over “300 Ukrainian soldiers.”
Among such exaggerated claims from both sides with little evidence, at this moment, it is hard to make a realistic assessment of the impact of North Korean soldiers on the battlefield. However, it must be noted that North Korean soldiers have not seen any conflict in the last seven decades since the Korean War and have very little experience of joint military drills with armies of other countries.
Mutual Security Treaty Between Russia & North Korea
Since the start of the Ukraine-Russia war in 2022, Western countries believe that Pyongyang has supported Moscow’s war effort by supplying military hardware like tanks, drones, and artillery shells.
The “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty” between North Korea and Russia was signed in June. However, the treaty came into force on December 4, with the exchange of “ratification instruments” in Moscow.
According to the document’s text, the treaty is indefinite and provides for mutual military assistance in the event of an attack on one of the parties.
“If there is a threat of armed aggression from other countries against one of the parties to the Treaty, consultations will be held to agree on possible measures of assistance… If Russia or the DPRK are subjected to an armed attack by one or more states, the parties will immediately provide military or other necessary assistance,” the document states.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from The University of Sheffield, UK.
- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
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