UPDATED at 2:31 p.m. ET on Dec. 20, 2024.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – Ukrainian forces released images and videos of what it said were the bodies of North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region after assaults on Saturday, with its defense intelligence estimating 200 Russian and North Korean military personnel were killed or wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Russia had begun using North Korean troops in significant numbers for the first time to conduct assaults on Ukrainian forces battling to hold an enclave in Kursk, which Ukrainian forces invaded in early August.
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The images, released by the Ukrainian drone warfare unit Magyar’s Birds, depict what appear to be corpses arranged in a row on snow-covered ground. Radio Free Asia has not been able to independently verify the images.
“This is a collaborative effort of first-person view drone pilots,” said Magyar’s Birds in its official telegram channel on Sunday.
Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a press briefing in Washington on Monday that the United States had “indications” that North Korean troops had been killed in Kursk.
“I don’t have specific numbers to provide for you, but that is obviously something that we continue to monitor,” Ryder said. “As we’ve said all along, those forces are legitimate military targets for the Ukrainians, given that they are engaged in active combat.”
Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, or DIU, reported on Saturday that the North Korean troops suffered casualties – both killed and wounded – as a result of a successful attack by Ukraine’s forces.
In particular, North Korean troops were “effectively targeted” by first-person view drones at one of the positions, said the DIU, adding that the estimated losses of the units staffed by Russian and North Korean personnel amounted to about 200 servicemen.
“In the process of deploying North Korean troops on the battlefield, the language barrier remains a problematic obstacle to command and coordination,” said the DIU.
“Due to this problem, North Korean soldiers opened friendly fire on the vehicles of the so-called Akhmat battalion. The result was eight dead Kadyrovites.”
Kadyrovites is a collective term for Chechen troops loyal to leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.
The DIU added that the incident was the result of the language barrier between Russian and North Korean troops, which continues to be a “difficult obstacle” on the battlefield.
The reports of North Korean casualties came after Zelenskyy announced that evidence had emerged suggesting that Russia had begun using North Korean troops in assaults against Ukrainian forces in Kursk, where Ukrainian troops are conducting operations.
Ukraine launched an incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region in August to divert Russian forces from their operations inside Ukraine.
Andrii Kovalenko, an official at Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, also said the North Koreans had taken losses, without providing numbers.
“The Russians are counting on numbers and are trying to carry out assault operations with the help of the Koreans, when the task of the Koreans is to run under the blows of our forces and occupy certain areas,” Kovalenko wrote on Telegram, adding that there was a “significant increase” in the number of Russian assaults on the Kursk front.
The U.S. and South Korea estimate that more than 10,000 North Koreans have been sent to Russia to help it with its war against Ukraine.
They have said that the North Koreans have been fighting in Russia’s southwestern Kursk border region against Ukrainian forces who occupied parts of it in early August.
Neither Russia nor North Korea have confirmed the presence of North Korean troops in Russia.
In November, Zelenskyy stated that the North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces in Kursk had already suffered losses.
Also in late November, a U.S. official confirmed to RFA Korean service that North Korean troops deployed in Russia had suffered casualties, after media reports that 500 North Koreans had been killed in a Ukrainian attack with British missiles.
At that time, the unidentified official from the U.S. Department of Defense familiar with the situation said casualties among North Korean troops have occurred in the Kursk region, adding that it was caused by an airstrike by the Ukrainian army.
Edited by RFA Staff. Updated to include comments from the Pentagon.
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