Seoul reveals how many of Putin’s North Koreans have died fighting Ukraine

At least 100 North Korean soldiers have already been killed and another 1,000 have been wounded fighting against Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region, according to South Korea’s spy agency. 

Seoul’s National Intelligence Service estimates that 11,000 North Korean troops have been sent to fight on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s side in the war against Ukraine, some of whom have already been deployed to Kursk, a southern region which Kyiv’s troops snatched part of during a surprise summer incursion.

The agency’s findings were revealed by South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun, who spoke to reporters after a closed-door briefing by the National Intelligence Service to a South Korean parliamentary committee.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced Saturday that Moscow had deployed a “significant number” of North Korean soldiers to support its offensive against Ukrainian forces in Kursk, corroborating earlier Western reports of troops arriving from the East Asian country to fight in Europe.

Now, Seoul estimates that a large number of these troops are already wounded or even dead, as they are being “consumed” on “unfamiliar battlefields” due to their lack of experience fending off drone attacks, which the Kremlin believes is a “burden” on the Russian military, according to the South Korean intel.

U.S. military officials also told Reuters this week that North Korean troops suffered “several hundred casualties” fighting Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region.