A captured North Korean soldier.
Via Volodymyr Zelensky
A third of North Korean troops deployed in western Russia’s Kursk Oblast late last year were killed or injured, according to Ukraine’s president. Volodymyr Zelensky. Colonel Ants Kiviselg, head of the Estonian Defense Forces Intelligence Center, confirmed this statement.
But that doesn’t mean the North Koreans aren’t “serious warriors,” in the assessment of Volodymyr Demchenko, a Ukrainian soldier and filmmaker. In particular, the North Koreans “have impeccable shooting training,” Demchenko explained.
North Korea deployed its 11th Army Corps to Kursk in October. North Korean anti-tank vehicles, howitzers, rocket launchers and air defense vehicles followed.
The 12,000 soldiers of the 11th Army Corps joined the approximately 48,000 Russians fighting the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk that began in August. After six months of bitter fighting, 20,000 Ukrainians still hold 250 square miles of the oblast.
The North Koreans launched their first assaults in December, marching on foot across snow-covered fields to attack the Ukrainian lines. Despite suffering horrific losses from Ukrainian mines, artillery, and drones, the North Koreans continued to advance and pushed the outnumbered Ukrainians out of at least one front-line village.
Infantry assaults, largely lacking the support of armored vehicles, are not a phenomenon unique to North Korea. Ukrainian drones are everywhere at all times, making it virtually impossible for Russian and North Korean vehicles to escape cover. Tanks “simply don’t reach the launch line of an attack,” according to a Russian blogger. They are drones miles away.
Some Russian tank commanders continue to try. Kriegsforscher, a Ukrainian drone operator in Kursk, recently counted 75 damaged Russian vehicles that he said no other observer had reported. Of course, there were 34 shipwrecked Ukrainian vehicles too. The sheer scale of the mechanized destruction should “speak volumes about the heavy fighting in this region,” Kriegsforscher wrote.
The infantry bears the brunt of combat and suffering. More than 200 North Koreans were killed or wounded during their first assault on Kursk. A failed assault earlier this month may have caused 400 Russian casualties on the ground. By mid-January, 3,800 of the 12,000 troops in North Korea’s 11th Army Corps had been killed, wounded or – much less likely – captured.
The small handful of North Koreans captured by the Ukrainians is indicative of the cruelty of the combined Russian-North Korean army, according to Zelensky. “Russian and other North Korean military forces typically execute their wounded to erase any evidence of North Korea’s involvement in the war against Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
Wounded North Koreans sometimes commit suicide, sparing their comrades this horrible responsibility. “These are completely hardened guys who, when injured, follow a single pattern: pull the pin, put a grenade on their heads and good night,” Demchenko wrote.
Incredibly, North Korean casualties could be higher without their excellent gunnery training. Unlike poorly trained Russian recruits, the typical North Korean infantryman has spent years preparing for combat. “The statistics on the small drones they destroyed testify to this,” according to Demchenko.
Small Ukrainian explosive drones kill another plot North Koreans. But they would kill even more if the North Koreans did not shoot down large numbers of drones.
Depleted by a third, North Korea’s 11th Army Corps may need reinforcements – and soon. It is not clear whether Pyongyang has committed to deploying more troops. But the North Korean regime certainly has an incentive to continue sending men. Moscow would trade key military technologies in exchange for additional manpower.
