South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has said 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 Wednesday.
The briefing came two days after North Korea confirmed for the first time, on April 28, it had sent combat troops to the Kursk region, which Russia says it has fully recaptured after an incursion by Ukrainian forces last year.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) gave a secret briefing 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 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 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 Russia had given North Korea air defense missiles, electronic warfare equipment, drones, and technology for spy satellite launches.
In January, the NIS estimated 300 North Korean soldiers had died, and 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 last year in the Kursk region to fight the Ukrainians.
They include the Storm Corps, an elite special forces unit.
In February, the NIS said North Korea had sent reinforcements to the frontline in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces, who were battling to expel the Ukrainians from Russian territory near the city of Sudzha in Kursk oblast.
On April 28, the North Korean regime stated the troop deployment was ordered by leader Kim Jong Un as part of the “comprehensive strategic partnership” he signed with Putin last year, according to a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.
In the statement, Kim referred to the soldiers as “heroes,” saying that their deployment demonstrated the “firm alliance” between the two countries.
The statement went on to say the North Korean soldiers “fully demonstrated their high fighting spirit and military temperament and made an important contribution to annihilating the Ukrainian neo-Nazi forces and liberating the territory of the Russian Federation by displaying mass heroism, matchless bravery and self-sacrificing spirit.”
Russia has also recently confirmed North Korean soldiers were fighting alongside its forces against the Ukrainian invasion in the Kursk region—the first such admission by the Kremlin about North Korea’s involvement.
Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said in a statement on April 26 that North Korean soldiers had provided “significant assistance” to Russia in retaking the last settlement in the Kursk region from Ukrainian occupation.
North Korea has also supplied large quantities of artillery shells to Russia, helping the country maintain its regular bombardment of the Ukrainian lines, especially in the Donbas region, where the Russians are making a steady, slow advance.
In November 2024, Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov flew to Pyongyang for talks with North Korean military and political leaders.
Kremlin’s Cease-Fire Offer
On April 28, the Kremlin announced a three-day cease-fire in Ukraine, starting on May 8.
The Kremlin, on its Telegram channel, said, “By order of the supreme commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, the Russia side, guided by humanitarian motives, announces a cease-fire for the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War.”
It said the truce would last from midnight Moscow time on May 8 to midnight on May 11.
Ukraine, in response, questioned why Russia would not assent to its call for an immediate 30-day cease-fire.
On April 29, the Kremlin said it was still waiting for an official Ukrainian response to the cease-fire offer.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.