Over 6,000 North Korean troops killed or injured in Ukraine war: British defence ministry

Seoul: North Korea is estimated to have sustained more than 6,000 casualties in fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, more than half of the troops Pyongyang initially deployed, according to Britain’s defence ministry.

The ministry shared the assessment in an X post on Sunday, two months after its earlier estimate of over 5,000 North Korean troop casualties in Russia’s western front-line region of Kursk in early April.

“The total casualties amount to more than half of the approximately 11,000 DPRK troops initially deployed to the Kursk region,” it said.

“Significant DPRK casualty rates have almost certainly been sustained primarily through large, highly attritional dismounted assaults.”

DPRK stands for North Korea’s official name — the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The ministry said North Korea’s operations in the war have so far been confined to the Kursk region, adding that any decision to deploy into Ukrainian territory would likely need approval from Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

After deploying some 11,000 troops to Russia last year, North Korea is estimated to have sent an additional 3,000 soldiers to the Kursk region this year, according to South Korea’s military, Yonhap news agency reported.

The National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in late April that North Korea had incurred some 4,700 casualties, including about 600 deaths.

Earlier on April 28, North Korea had confirmed for the first time that it had deployed troops to Russia to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine under their mutual defence treaty, claiming the North’s soldiers helped Russia regain control of Kursk.

The North’s deployment was made by “the order” of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in accordance with Pyongyang’s mutual defence treaty with Moscow, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Citing the North’s Central Military Commission, the KCNA had reported the first confirmation of troop deployment to Russia, months after thousands of North Korean troops were sent to Russia for combat in the front-line region of Kursk.

“The operations for liberating the Kursk area to repel the adventurous invasion of the Russian Federation by the Ukrainian authorities were victoriously concluded,” the KCNA said, adding that the subunits of the national armed forces participated in the operations “according to the order of the country’s head of state,” Kim Jong-un.

–IANS