Zelenskyy: Over 3,000 North Korean troops killed or injured in Kursk

The number of killed and injured North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk region has surpassed 3000, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address on 23 December. 

He added that increased collaboration between Russia and North Korea threatens to destabilise the Korean Peninsula and nearby regions.  

“There are risks of North Korea sending additional soldiers and military equipment to the Russian army, and we will have tangible responses to this,” Zelenskyy added. 

Earlier on Monday South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that Pyongyang is now planning to send additional military support to Russia to help its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Yonhap news agency reported on Monday. 

Reinforcements might include additional troops and weapons, including kamikaze drones. 

“A comprehensive assessment of multiple intelligence shows that North Korea is preparing to rotate or increase the deployment of troops (in Russia) while currently supplying 240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery,” the JCS said.

The JCS said that suicide drones are one of the goals that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has focused on. They have been widely used in Russia’s war in Ukraine, and Kim ordered mass production of aerial weapons and an update of military theory and education, citing intensifying global competition, state media reported.

“There are also some signs of (the North) moving to manufacture and supply suicide drones, first unveiled during Kim Jong-un’s on-site inspection in November,” the JCS said, attributing the move to the North’s efforts to gain practical warfare experience and modernize its conventional weapons system.

Kyiv, Washington and Seoul said there are about 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia.

Zelenskyy’s estimation of 3000 North Korean troops killed and wounded, that he said comes from Ukraine’s intelligence, is a significant increase from other recent reports about the North Korean casualties.

The JCS said at least 1,100 of them had been killed or wounded, in line with last week’s briefing by South Korea’s spy agency, which reported some 100 dead and another 1,000 wounded in Russia’s Kursk region.

North Korean soldiers given fake Russian military IDs

North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia were given fake military IDs with Russian names and birthplaces, according to Kyiv.

Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces issued a statement and photos of the seized documents after three North Korean soldiers were allegedly killed in the Kursk region over the weekend.

Their military identification documents “lack all the stamps and photos, the patronymic names are given in the Russian manner, and the place of birth is signed as the Republic of Tuva,” the statement said, referring to a Russian region in southern Siberia bordering Mongolia.

However, the signatures on the documents are in Korean, which “indicates the real origin of these soldiers,” the statement added.