North Korean safety companies are telling their troops stationed in Russia's Kursk Oblast that they’re combating towards each the Ukrainian and South Korean militaries, South Korean newspaper Chosun Each day reported, citing captured North Korean troopers.
Two North Korean prisoners of warfare, captured by Ukrainian forces final month, spoke completely to Chosun Each day at a prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in Ukraine.
One of many captives admitted that he and his fellow troopers believed they had been combating South Korean troops, which heightened their morale and aggression.
Every battalion, consisting of about 500 troopers, was monitored by one or two officers from North Korea's State Safety Ministry, one of many prisoners stated. These officers oversaw ideological coaching and self-discipline.
They reportedly knowledgeable their troopers that Ukrainian drone operators had been South Korean army personnel.
Seoul has not supplied army help to Kyiv for the reason that starting of Russia's full-scale invasion.
As much as 12,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to Kursk Oblast final fall to assist Russian forces in countering a Ukrainian incursion launched in August 2024.
Their journey to Russia took a number of months, with a gaggle of two,500 North Koreans departing on Oct. 10, 2024, touring by practice, then by aircraft, and eventually by bus to Kursk, the place they arrived in mid-December, in response to one of many captives.
The opposite captured soldier, a sniper skilled for reconnaissance, stated contact between North Korean troops and Russian forces was minimal, with interplay primarily occurring on the command degree for ammunition, provides, and tools.
President Volodymyr Zelensky beforehand reported that North Korean forces combating for Russia had suffered 4,000 casualties, with two-thirds of the losses being troopers killed.
Ukraine's army intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, attributed the excessive losses to North Korea's lack of fight expertise and its use of human wave assaults with restricted tools.
Ukraine's cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in August 2024 initially seized 1,300 sq. kilometers (500 sq. miles) of Russian territory.
Whereas Ukrainian forces have since misplaced roughly half that space resulting from Russian counterattacks, they lately superior 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) in a renewed offensive.
The Kyiv IndependentTim Zadorozhnyy