South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has stated that North Korea has suffered 4,700 casualties, according to a politician who attended a briefing.
North Korea has suffered 4,700 casualties, including 600 deaths, in the conflict in Ukraine, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers at a briefing on April 30.
The briefing came two days after North Korea confirmed, for the first time, on April 28 that it had sent combat troops to the Kursk region, which Russia says it has fully recaptured after an incursion by Ukrainian forces in 2024.
The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) gave a secret briefing on the issue to a parliamentary committee, and Lee Seong Kweun, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting, later told reporters what had been said.
Lee, who represents the conservative People’s Power Party, said the NIS officials said 2,000 injured soldiers had been sent back to North Korea by air or train between January and March.
He said the NIS said the dead North Korean soldiers were cremated in Russia and that their remains were then transported home.
“After six months of participation in the war, the North Korean military has become less inept, and its combat capability has significantly improved as it becomes accustomed to using new weapons such as drones,” Lee said.
Kim Byung-kee, another lawmaker who also attended the briefing, said the NIS also stated that 15,000 North Korean laborers had been sent to Russia under bilateral industrial cooperation programs.
No Sign of Payment for Missiles
He said North Korea had sent billions of dollars’ worth of missiles and artillery to Russia, but the NIS had not detected signs of any cash transfers from Moscow to Pyongyang.
But Kim, who represents the liberal Democratic Party, said the NIS believed that Russia had given North Korea air defense missiles, electronic warfare equipment, drones, and technology for spy satellite launches.
In January, the NIS estimated that 300 North Korean soldiers had died and that another 2,700 had been injured.
In December 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said North Korea had suffered “very significant” losses in the Kursk region.
According to the Pentagon, 10,000 North Korean troops were initially deployed in 2024 in the Kursk region to fight the Ukrainians.
They include the Storm Corps, an elite special forces unit.
