North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine have vanished from the battlefield, according to South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS).
"Since mid-January, there have been no signs showing North Korean troops deployed to the Russian Kursk region engaging in battle," the NIS said on Tuesday.
An estimated 11,000 North Koreans were deployed to Kursk in December to support Russia against Ukraine's counter-invasion launched last August. The NIS statement corroborates a recent report by The New York Times, which attributed the North Koreans' withdrawal to heavy casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that up to 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been wounded or killed—approximately a third of the corps. The NIS estimated the toll at around 3,000.
Ukrainian commanders on the ground have reported that Russian forces used North Korean troops to spearhead assaults and that they were ordered to end their own lives rather than be captured, or were executed by their own forces.
However, HNGN cannot independently verify these claims.
The absence of North Korean troops could indicate a temporary regrouping. Zelenskyy told The Associated Press that he had intelligence suggesting that as many as 25,000 additional North Korean soldiers were en route to Kursk.
Meanwhile, Russian forces continue to suffer heavy casualties. Ukraine's Ministry of Defence estimated that 48,240 Russian troops were lost last month—the second-highest monthly casualty rate in nearly three years of war. The fiercest battles have been concentrated around Pokrovsk in Donetsk, where Russian forces are struggling to gain ground.
"In January of this year alone, our soldiers neutralized more than 15,000 invaders [in Pokrovsk], of which about 7,000 were killed," Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii said on Saturday.
Despite these losses, Russia's territorial gains are slowing. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, reported that Russian forces seized 498 square kilometers (192 square miles) of land in January, compared to 593 square kilometers (229 square miles) in December. The ISW noted that the reduced land acquisition coupled with high casualties suggests continued attritional warfare with diminishing returns.
The ISW has previously estimated that Russia may require two more years of conflict to fully capture Donetsk.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine regularly disclose battlefield losses. However, Zelenskyy recently revealed that 45,100 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the start of the war. The Ukrainska Pravda (UP) news site reported on Tuesday that Ukraine's armed forces are preparing to integrate 50,000 reservists into frontline brigades to compensate for personnel losses.
As the war grinds on, both sides are facing mounting casualties, with no immediate resolution in sight.
