The stories about North Koreans fighting in Russia’s Kursk may be make-believe but they continue to stubbornly gain traction. I know it's unbelievable but it's true.
On October 16 this year, Ukraine’s President [V]olodymyr [Z]elensky told parliament that North Korea had become a “de facto participant” in the war between Ukraine and Russia. He added that Ukrainian intelligence had found that North Korea was not only transferring weapons, but also soldiers to Moscow.
Of course lah, once he announced this deployment, there must surely be casualties to make the fiction believable. And so, reports emerge to reveal that thousands of them have been killed or wounded while fighting on Russia’s side.
Already, authorities in Ukraine, South Korea and the United States have all reported deaths among those North Korean soldiers.
Figures vary depending on who they come from.
[Z]elensky posted on X on Monday that Ukrainian forces had killed or wounded more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region.
His estimate is higher, however, than that of South Korea’s military officials, who also said on Monday that at least 1,100 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded.
Earlier, Seoul’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, disclosed on December 19 that of those, approximately 100 had been killed and 1,000 had been injured since they entered combat against Ukraine.
South Korean parliament member Lee Sung-kwon updated reporters on these same figures seven days ago, according to the BBC. He said that the casualties included high-ranking officials, and suggested that the soldiers died because they were unfamiliar with Russian terrain and drone warfare.
Speaking to reporters on December 16, Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said the US believed North Korean soldiers had "engaged in combat in Kursk alongside Russian forces" and "suffered casualties, both killed and wounded". However, he did not give specific numbers, but said the troops had been in combat since "a little over a week ago".
He added it appeared the North Koreans were being used in infantry roles and that their involvement was thought so far to be limited to Kursk, implying that they have not been deployed in Ukraine itself.
On that same day, [Z]elensky posted drone footage on Telegram that showed a number of men taking cover behind trees, saying they were North Korean troops who had just taken part in an assault on a Ukrainian position. Furthermore, he posted another footage which he claimed were Russian troops trying to conceal the presence of North Koreans on the battlefield "by using a campfire to burn the faces of those who had been killed".
In wartime, the fiction genre is, indeed, popular!
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