The chairman of the US Department of Defense was asked to comment on South Korean intelligence about the liquidation of at least 100 North Korean servicemen in battles with the Ukrainian defense forces.
Speaking about the US assessment of losses among North Korean soldiers, Ryder said the US side believes we can now talk about “several hundred” dead or wounded.
“We continue to observe and assess at this stage that several hundred DPRK forces have suffered casualties ranging from killed in action to wounded,” Ryder said.
A Pentagon spokesman said that given the continued participation of these South Korean soldiers alongside the Russian military in battles with Ukrainian defenders, losses from the North Korean contingent can be expected to increase.
“As they engage in fighting with the Russians (against the armed forces of Ukraine – ed.), you know, we naturally expect those numbers to increase,” Ryder noted.
Participation of DPRK troops in battles against the Ukrainian armed forces in the Kursk region
Let’s remember that back in June, against the background of media reports about the possibility of sending North Korean soldiers to the Russian Federation to help the Kremlin in the war against Ukraine, the Pentagon predicted that if North Korean forces join the Russian invaders, they could become ‘cannon fodder’.
Last fall, it became known that North Korea had transferred more than ten thousand of its military personnel to the Russian Federation. After the training, a certain part was already sent to the Kursk region, where North Korean soldiers, together with the Russian army, are fighting against the Ukrainian Defense Forces.
On December 16, President Vladimir Zelensky announced that The Russian Federation has already started involving North Korea’s military in the fighting in the Kursk region.
As the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Andrey Kovalenko said on December 18, North Korean troop losses in the Kursk region already exceed 200 people.
On the same day, the American newspaper The New York Time wrote that The Pentagon believes North Korea has already lost “several hundred” soldiers in the war. According to the US Department of Defense, the Russian Federation has concentrated about 50 thousand Russian and North Korean troops to expel the Ukrainian armed forces from the border areas in the Kursk region.
On 19 December, British intelligence reported that it had recorded significant losses of North Korean troops in the Kursk region.
On December 20, South Korean intelligence announced that at least 100 North Korean soldiers in Russia have already diedand another 1,000 were injured during fighting with Ukrainian armed forces in the Kursk region.
