North Korea has sent 11,000 troops to Russia, many of whom have already died. The Pentagon is expecting more troops to arrive.
Points of attention
- North Korea sent 11,000 troops to Russia for support in the Kursk region.
- According to official sources, a third of the North Korean military has already suffered losses during hostilities.
- It is predicted that the entire contingent of military personnel could be destroyed by Ukrainian soldiers within the next 12 weeks.
- In documents issued by North Korea to military personnel in Russia, they are registered as residents of the Russian Far East.
- North Korea's plans to send reinforcements to Russia have serious implications for both the military itself and international relations.
North Korea to send new soldiers to Kursk region
As the publication notes, last fall, North Korea sent about 11,000 soldiers to support Russian troops in the Kursk region in southern Russia, where Ukrainian forces regained control of some territories after a surprise operation in the summer.
According to Ukrainian and American officials, since the first combat clash in early December, about a third of the North Korean military has suffered casualties — they have been killed or wounded.
Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky said this week that North Korean casualties continue to mount, with nearly half of them wounded or killed to date. At the same time, he stressed that the Korean troops remain “highly motivated, well-trained and brave.”
The North Korean armed forces, numbering 1.2 million, are among the largest in the world. Their involvement in the war is a major escalation in a conflict that has been going on for almost three years.
North Korean soldiers in Russia were issued documents that registered them as residents of the Russian Far East. One Pentagon official called the documents “pocket trash.”
Casualties among North Korean soldiers are rising rapidly
The American Institute for the Study of War draws attention to the fact that North Korean troops fighting on the side of the Russian army in the Kursk region are suffering critically high losses.
If Russia does not intervene in this process in any way, the entire contingent of 12,000 military personnel could be killed or wounded by mid-April 2025.
According to the latest data, the DPRK troops are losing about 92 of their soldiers every day.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy officially confirmed in early January that 3,800 North Korean soldiers had already been killed or wounded.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service also shared its data. It claims that as of January 13, 2025, 300 North Koreans had been killed and another 2,700 had been injured.
According to the ISW team's forecast, the entire North Korean contingent of 12,000 soldiers could be destroyed by Ukrainian soldiers within the next 12 weeks.
