According to Western officials, by mid-January, North Korean troops in the Russian Kursk region had lost about four thousand people killed and wounded, of whom about a thousand were killed, the BBC reports.
As the BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner points out, this is a very high figure, considering that about 11,000 soldiers were sent to help Russia in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops entered last August.
Lossies are considered to be those killed, wounded, missing or captured. However, Western officials, who requested anonymity, told the BBC that about 1,000 soldiers had died in the fighting. This is a very high level of casualties and clearly unacceptable for the North Korean contingent without significant reinforcements, Gardner notes.
It is not clear where the wounded are being treated, nor is it clear when and to what extent they will be replaced. But it is already clear that the North Korean regime is paying a high price for Russia's help.
Late last year, Ukraine and South Korea reported that Pyongyang had sent at least 10,000 troops to Russia.
Vladimir Putin said that the use of North Korean troops in military operations against Ukraine was a "sovereign decision" of Russia.
In mid-January, South Korea's National Intelligence Service reported the deaths of more than 300 North Korean soldiers fighting on the Russian side. According to them, at least 2,700 were injured.
Bloody battles continue in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian armed forces invaded in August 2024. Russian troops have managed to regain part of the occupied territory, but Ukrainian troops still hold dozens of settlements in the region, including the regional center Sudzha.
In particular, fighting continues northwest of Sudzha in the area of Kruglenki, Nikolaevka and Nikolaevo-Darino, north of Sudzha in the area of the villages of Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, Pogrebki, Staraya Sorochina and Novaya Sorochina, and also south of Sudzha in the area of Makhnovka.