This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
According to a U.S. specialist, in response to information that North Korea is planning to send more troops to help its ally Russia, up to half of the North Vietnamese soldiers in Russia’s Kursk area may have been wounded or killed in battle in recent months.
According to Ukraine and the US, there are up to 12 000 North Vietnamese men fighting in Russia against Ukrainian forces that occupied Kursk in August.
Although neither North Korea nor Russia have confirmed their appearance, early in December, reports of North Koreans fighting in Kursk started to emerge from Ukrainian, South Korean, and American sources.
” By most accounts, we were ready to take a look at anywhere between a second and perhaps on the actual high-end, probably 50 % deaths among the North Korean causes”, said Seth Jones, leader of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, during the agency’s radio on Tuesday.
” The casualty rates were significant”.
Radio Free Asia has not been able to independently verify the casualty numbers.
According to Jones, Russia was deploying waves of troops in search of advancement on the battlefield.
According to him,” their way of retaking territory is to engage in attrition warfare, take casualties, and accept those casualties,” adding that this is how Russia has used North Korean forces.
Citing conversations with Ukrainian forces, Jones said that North Korean soldiers in Kursk were “fierce fighters” who were willing to “fight and die”, but somewhat disorganized.
” The cohesion between North Korean and Russian forces, including command and control, was apparently poor. There were language barriers”, he added.
Jones made his remarks in response to rumors that North Korea might send additional troops to Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy , said , Russia may attempt to deploy an additional 20, 000 to 25, 000 North Korean soldiers, while South Korea said in January the North was accelerating preparations to send more troops to Russia.
According to Ukraine, about 4, 000 of the up to 12, 000 North Korean soldiers who were dispatched to Kursk late last year had died or been wounded.
A Washington-based think tank , reported , in January that North Korea could lose all of its troops aiding Russia within three months if the high casualty rate persisted.
Since engaging in significant combat in early December, North Korean forces have likely suffered 92 casualties per day, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
North Koreans in frontline
South Korea’s spy agency reported on Tuesday that North Koreans in the disputed region had not shown any signs of participating in combat since January, and in recent days, media has reported that North Korean troops have been taken off the front lines.
However, the intelligence chief of Ukraine disputed these reports and claimed that Kursk’s front-liner North Koreans were still at war.
Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency, said about 8, 000 North Koreans were still fighting against Ukraine, but at a reduced capacity.
In an interview with defense and security publication , The War Zone, Budanov stated,” We have to wait a while to see if there are any real changes or if this is just lower activities for a few days.”
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces updated his earlier statements to the media about North Koreans that were” not seen in Kursk for three weeks,” saying:” The Special Operations Forces only provide information about the front where our units are active.
