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North Korean troops are being hunted and killed by Ukrainian kamikaze drones on the front line in Russia’s Kursk region.
Several videos have emerged online of soldiers who appear to be North Korean fighting on the front lines. In the latest batch of footage, Ukrainian kamikaze drones can be seen circling troops before flying directly at them.
The footage cuts moments before the drones were probably detonated.
South Korea has claimed that one in 10 North Korean soldiers sent to Ukraine were killed or wounded in their first weeks of fighting.
The statistic was shared on Monday by Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) group, which said there were signs that Pyongyang was preparing to send more troops to Russia.
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Last week, Seoul’s spy agency said at least 100 North Korean soldiers had been killed since starting combat in December.
Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to reinforce the Russian military, including to the Kursk border region where Ukrainian forces seized territory earlier this year.
“Through various sources of information and intelligence, we assess that North Korean troops who have recently engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces have suffered around 1,100 casualties,” the JCS said in a statement.
The JCS added that Pyongyang was “preparing for the rotation or additional deployment” of North Korean soldiers to aid Russia’s war effort.
Intelligence suggested that the nuclear-armed North was “producing and providing self-destructible drones” and supplying “240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery” for the Russian army, the JCS said.
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Seoul’s military noted that North Korea was aiming to modernise its conventional warfare capabilities based on combat experience in the Russia-Ukraine war. “This could lead to an increase in the North’s military threat toward us,” it said.
The latest findings align with a report by the National Intelligence Service, which informed politicians that “Russia might offer reciprocal benefits” for North Korea’s military contributions, including “modernising North Korea’s conventional weaponry”.
North Korea and Russia have strengthened their military ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A landmark defence pact between Pyongyang and Moscow, signed in June, came into force this month.
Experts have said that Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, is keen to acquire advanced technology from Russia – and battle experience for his troops.
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Pyongyang on Thursday hit back at what it called “reckless provocation” by the United States and allies, after they issued a joint statement criticising North Korean support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, including the deployment of troops.
South Korea and Ukraine announced last month that they would deepen security co-operation in response to the “threat” posed by the deployment of North Korean troops, but there was no mention of potential arms shipments from Seoul to Kyiv.
Yoon Suk Yeol, South Korea’s president, said earlier in November that Seoul was “not ruling out the possibility of providing weapons” to Ukraine. That would mark a significant shift in its long-standing policy of not selling weapons to countries in active conflict.
North Korea’s military was also seen constructing a new fence stretching 40km (25 miles) along the border with the South and testing electric barbed-wire fences with animals.
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A photo provided by the JCS showed a North Korean soldier holding what appeared to be a goat in front of a fence.
The North’s border security reinforcement had been underway “for eight months with as many as 10,000 soldiers mobilised” a military official told reporters.
The stepped-up security measures were intended to “prevent defections by North Korean civilians and soldiers southward”, the JCS said.
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