About 600 North Korean troops have been killed fighting alongside Russian forces against Ukraine, South Korean lawmakers said on 30 April, citing the country’s intelligence agency.
This statement comes after North Korea made its first official confirmation about sending troops to Russia under a strategic partnership agreement between the two nations. Russian officials have also acknowledged North Korean military participation in combat operations in Ukraine’s Kursk Oblast.
“After six months of participation in the war, the North Korean military has become less inept, and its combat capability has significantly improved as it becomes accustomed to using new weapons such as drones,” lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters following a briefing by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.
North Korea has suffered approximately 4,700 total casualties, including both dead and wounded, according to the intelligence assessment.
The bodies of deceased North Korean soldiers were cremated in Russia’s Kursk Oblast before being returned to North Korea, Lee added.
In exchange for military support, North Korea reportedly received technical assistance from Russia on spy satellites, drones, and anti-air missiles, South Korean lawmakers reported.
The intelligence briefing also revealed North Korea has sent about 15,000 workers to Russia, which violates UN sanctions prohibiting the use of North Korean labor in third countries.
Russia’s Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, publicly acknowledged on 26 April that North Korean soldiers have fought in Kursk Oblast to help Russia retake territory seized by Ukraine during a cross-border offensive launched in August 2024.
“North Korea’s military deployment to Russia and any support provided by the Russian Federation to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in return must end,” US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
Bruce added that “Russia’s training of North Korean soldiers directly violates Security Council Resolutions 1718, 1874, and 2270, which collectively impose a broad prohibition on providing or receiving military training or assistance to or from the DPRK.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy previously said that North Korean units fighting for Russia had suffered around 4,000 casualties, with approximately two-thirds killed, figures that differ from the South Korean intelligence assessment.
Russian state news agency TASS recently released footage allegedly showing North Korean soldiers training alongside Russian forces in the Kursk Oblast.
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