North Korea Faces Grim Reality on Ukraine Battlefield

What’s New

North Korean soldiers have been killed in Russia’s Kursk region fighting alongside Moscow’s forces against Ukraine, according to the U.S.

Without giving numbers, Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said Monday that North Korean soldiers had been “killed and wounded” in the first U.S. confirmation of casualties from the secretive state.

It suggests a grim role ahead for Pyongyang’s troops in the war, with one expert telling Newsweek they have “now become Putin’s cannon fodder.”

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry for comment by email.

Why it matters

The entry of North Korea into the war marked a significant development and it was only a matter of time before they became casualties.

The addition of North Korean forces allows Putin to offset battlefield losses without taking the unpopular move of further mobilization while freeing up Russian troops for the front line.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said Pyongyang had sent 11,000 troops and warned the West that Moscow had gathered 50,000 troops to fight Kyiv’s incursion into Kursk that started on August 6.

Even if they face further casualties, North Korea will still benefit, said Yuriy Boyechko, CEO and founder of the charity Hope for Ukraine. “Let’s say only 1,000 of them survives—they will come back to North Korea and train the rest of the army on this new type of warfare,” he told Newsweek.

Konstantin Sonin, a Russian-born professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy whose criticism of Putin’s war has put him on Russia’s Federal Wanted list, said the size of the North Korean contingent was not significant—yet.

“I think that it’s perhaps at an experimental stage so if it works, maybe they will try to use 100,000 North Korean troops, which would make a difference,” he told Newsweek, “200,000 would make even a bigger difference.”

What to know

Ryder told a press briefing Monday that North Korean soldiers had been in combat for just over a week in Kursk where there were integrated into Russian units, mostly in infantry roles.

He said the North Koreans had “suffered casualties, both killed and wounded,” reiterating the U.S. position they were “legitimate military targets.”

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the GUR, has also said at least 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded in fighting last weekend.

“I think the North Koreans are there just like the prisoners used to be before Wagner, so they are throwing them in as the first line of offense,” said Boyechko. “These guys, they not really prepared to the type of warfare that’s going on right now in Kursk.”

The Wagner group of mercenaries had played a key role in the war in Ukraine. Russia has also drawn on prisoners to help bolster troop numbers, offering convicts amnesty in return for fighting. In June 2023, Putin said he had pardoned prisoners who had returned from the war.

Drone footage posted on the Telegram channel of a Ukrainian soldier with the call sign Madyar purports to show dead North Korean troops lined up in the snow in an unspecified part of Kursk.

“North Korean troops have now become Putin’s cannon fodder,” Edward Howell, Korea Foundation fellow at the Chatham House think tank in London, told Newsweek.

With no prior combat experience, there are question marks over the capabilities of the North Korean troops. It was reported that the language barrier had led to a misunderstanding in which Chechen soldiers fighting for Russia were killed in friendly fire.

“North Korea has no generals and no forces that have had any kind of experience of actual war,” said Sonin.

What people are saying

Edward Howell, Korea Foundation Fellow at Chatham House think tank in London told Newsweek: “North Korean troops have now become Putin’s cannon fodder even though their involvement in the war has done little to change Putin’s overall strategy.

“If the reports of these casualties are true, it puts Kim Jong Un in a difficult situation—will he simply send more soldiers and generals to Russia, the latter to monitor a growing number of troops?”

Konstantin Sonin, professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy told Newsweek: “It’s perhaps at an experimental stage, so if it works, maybe they will try to use 100,000 North Korean troops which would make a difference.”

Yuriy Boyechko, CEO and founder of the charity Hope for Ukraine told Newsweek: “Let’s say only 1,000 of them survives—they will come back to North Korea and train the rest of the army on this new type of warfare.”

What happens next

Russian forces advanced over the weekend in the main Ukrainian salient in Kursk Oblast, according to the Institute for the Study of War while Kyiv seeks to retain as much leverage in the Russian region ahead of any negotiations in 2025.

But Russia’s push comes as Putin seeks to recapture as much territory as he can ahead of the inauguration on January 20 of President Donald Trump, who may pressure Kyiv to come to a deal, Boyechko said. He believed that Pyongyang could send more troops in the coming weeks and months, because “this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Meanwhile, Howell said one unknown factor is “what Kim will ask in return from Russia; not least now that North Korean soldiers are not just active participants in the war, but casualties from it.”