North Korean troops sent to fight alongside Russia in its war against Ukraine have not been seen in battle for several weeks, raising speculation they have been withdrawn after suffering heavy losses, according to South Korea’s spy agency.
The National Intelligence Service in Seoul this week confirmed media reports that North Korean troops had been pulled from the frontline around the middle of January.
North Korea began sending an estimated 11,000 troops to the Russian Kursk region in late 2024, soon after the North’s ruler, Kim Jong-un, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, agreed a mutual defence pact designed to strengthen their alliance against what they called a US-led “western hegemony”.
Their involvement has come at a heavy price. Intelligence officials in South Korea said about 300 North Koreans had been killed and about 2,700 wounded. In January the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, posted a clip showing two captured North Korean soldiers, one of whom said his commanders had told him he was being sent on a “training exercise”.
The North’s soldiers, who had not seen combat before being deployed, were said to have been unprepared for the harsh realities of warfare in unfamiliar terrain and particularly vulnerable to Ukrainian drones.
Intelligence officials in the South claimed notes had been found on dead North Korean soldiers indicating that the regime expected them to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner.
The arrival of North Korean troops triggered fears that the war could take a dangerous turn for Ukraine, amid claims by military officials in South Korea that the regime in Pyongyang was preparing to send even more troops.
In return for sending personnel, weapons and ammunition, the North is hoping to gain access to sophisticated Russian satellite technology and earn foreign currency to fund its nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
South Korea’s intelligence service said the large number of casualties was a factor in the apparent decision to withdraw North Korean soldiers from Kursk, where Ukrainian forces launched a surprise offensive in August 2024.
North Korea has not publicly acknowledged its role in the war, but in October Mr Putin did not deny that the North’s forces had arrived in Russia.
North Korean vice-foreign minister Kim Jong-gyu said any such deployment would be in line with international law. – Guardian
