N Korea suffers 1,100 casualties in Russia-Ukraine war: Seoul

SEOUL: More than 1,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded in Russia´s war with Ukraine, South Korea´s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Monday.

The new figure follows a report by Seoul´s spy agency to MPs last week, which said at least 100 North Korean soldiers had been killed since entering 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.

“We are particularly interested in the possibility of additional deployments” of North Korean soldiers to aid Russia´s war effort, it said. Pyongyang is reportedly “preparing for the rotation or additional deployment of soldiers”, the JCS said. Intelligence also suggests that the nuclear-armed North is “producing and providing self-destructible drones” to Russia to further assist Moscow in its fight against Ukraine, it added.