Seul, South Korea – some 600 North Korean troops have been killed that fight for Russia against Ukraine for a total deployment of 15,000, South Korean legislators said Wednesday, citing the country’s intelligence agency.
North Korea has suffered some 4,700 casualties so far, including injuries and deaths, although their troops have shown signs of improved combat capabilities for approximately six months through the use of modern weapons such as drones, legislators said.
In exchange for sending troops and supplying weapons to Russia, Pyongyang seems to have received technical assistance in spy satellites, as well as anti-Aire drones and missiles, they said.
“After six months of participation in the war, the North Korean army has become less inept, and its combat capacity has improved significantly as it is customary to use new weapons as drones,” said Lee Seong-Kweun, a member of the Parliamentary Intelligence Committee, told journalists, after being informed by the National Intelligence Service of South Korea.
Pyongyang earlier this week confirmed for the first time that he had sent troops to fight for Russia in the war against Ukraine under the orders of leader Kim Jong Un and that he had helped recover control of the Russian territory occupied by Ukraine.
The unprecedented deployment of North Korea of thousands of troops, as well as large amounts of artillery and missile ammunition, gave Russia a crucial advantage in the battlefield in the western region of Kursk and has brought the two economical and politically closer isolated countries closer to the two isolated countries.
Lee, the legislator, added that the bodies of dead North Korean soldiers were incinerated in Kursk before being sent back home.
It is also believed that Pyongyang sent about 15,000 workers to Russia, legislators said, citing intelligence evaluations.
North Korea’s work is known as the source of currency income of the regime, but UN sanctions prohibit the use of North Korea’s work in third countries.
