South Korea’s military leadership said on Monday that over 1,000 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded since joining Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“Through various sources of information and intelligence, we assess that North Korean troops who have recently engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces have suffered around 1,100 casualties,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement.
The JCS also said that Pyongyang was “preparing for the rotation or additional deployment of soldiers.”
Last week South Korea’s intelligence agency told MPs there had been some 100 deaths with another 1,000 wounded in the Kursk region where Ukrainian forces had launched a surprise incursion in August. Ukraine has since lost large portions of the territory it seized.
In October the National Intelligence Service said that as many as 12,000 North Korean troops had been sent to Russia to help support its war in Ukraine.
Seoul warns of Pyongyang’s military ambitions
The JCS also said that Pyongyang was producing “self-destructible drones” to further support Moscow along with supplying “240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery” to Russian forces.
“Suicide drones are one of the tasks that Kim Jong Un has focused on,” the Reuters news agency cited a JCS official as saying, adding that the North had expressed its intention to give them to Russia.
South Korea’s military leadership said that it was likely North Korea was seeking to revamp its conventional warfare capabilities using the experience from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“This could lead to an increase in the North’s military threat toward us,” it said.
Moscow and Pyongyang have strengthened their military ties since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A defense pact between Pyongyang and Moscow, signed in June, came into force this month.
Russia claims more battlefield advances
Meanwhile, Russia said Monday that the village of Storozheve in eastern Ukraine had been captured.
The settlement is situated near the town of Velyka Novosilka which Russian troops appear to be attempting to encircle.
While the claims cannot be independently verified, Russia has been making steady advances in the Donetsk region against outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian forces.
Russia is also continuing its daily aerial bombardment of Ukraine, with Kyiv reporting that 47 out of 72 Russian drones had been shot down across the country.
In a statement on Telegram, Ukraine’s military said that attacks had been repelled in nine regions including near the capital. It added that 25 of the drones launched had failed to reach their targets.
kb/rm (AFP, Reuters)
