Seoul/Kyiv (Agencies): South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported this week that North Korean soldiers fighting in the Ukraine war have disappeared from the battlefield. The NIS confirmed that since mid-January, there have been no signs of North Korean troops deployed to the Russian Kursk region engaging in battle.
An estimated 11,000 North Koreans were deployed to Kursk last December to assist Russia in its counterinvasion efforts launched in August 2024. However, heavy casualties among North Korean soldiers have led to their withdrawal from the front lines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that as many as 4,000 North Korean soldiers have been wounded or killed, while the NIS put the figure at 3,000.
Ukrainian commanders reported that Russian forces used North Koreans to spearhead attacks and that they were ordered to end their own lives rather than be captured or were shot by their own side. The NIS suggested that the North Korean absence could be a temporary regrouping, with up to 25,000 additional North Korean troops en route to Kursk.
Russian troops are also suffering high losses, with Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence estimating Russian casualties at 48,240 last month, the second-highest monthly casualty rate in almost three years of war. About a third of these losses were incurred around Pokrovsk, the eastern Ukrainian town in Donetsk that Russia has launched an intensive battle to capture.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Russia gained 498 square kilometers of territory in January 2025, compared to 593 square kilometers in December 2024, indicating diminishing returns for the high number of casualties.