About 600 North Korean soldiers who were killed in Russia against Ukraine, says Seoul

About 600 North Korean troops were killed against Russia against Ukrainian armed forces, the South Korea espionage agency told the legislators on Wednesday.

North Korea suffered around 4,700 victims – including injuries and deaths – the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) told a parliamentary committee.

According to the NIS, around 2,000 injured soldiers became North Korea between January and March. The dead soldiers were cremated in Russia before their remains were sent home, the secret service agency said.

The assessment took place two days after Pyongyang had confirmed for the first time that troops had sent it to help Russia resumed parts of the Kursk region, over which Ukraine surprised control last year. Russia announced on Saturday that Ukrainian troops had been removed from Kursk, an assertion that could not be verified independently.

On Monday, North Korea announced that the leader Kim Jong-un had decided to use troops to “eradicate the … occupiers and to free the area of ​​Kursk in cooperation with the Russian armed forces”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin later made an explanation in the North Korea and promised not to forget the “victims” of the country's soldiers.

The leaders said that the North Korean commitment was concluded in the context of the defense contract of their nations in 2024, which means that each page had to help if the other is attacked.

The United States, South Korea and its partners say that North Korea has delivered large quantities of conventional weapons to fill up the excavated stocks in Russia. They suspect that Moscow provides Pyongyang in return with military and economic support.

In autumn, Ukraine, the USA and South Korea stated that North Korea had used a 10,000-12,000 quota to Russia to fight in Kursk. In March the South Korean army said that Pyongyang sent around 3,000 other soldiers to Russia at the beginning of this year.

During the Wednesday meeting, NIS said that Russia had given North Korea air defense rockets, electronic warfare, drones and technology for spy satellite start.

According to the Spy Agency, Pyongyang also sent 15,000 North Korean workers to Russia according to bilateral industrial cooperation programs.

“After six months of participation in the war, the North Korean military has become less incapable of being improved, and its ability to fight has improved significantly because it got used to the use of new weapons such as drones,” said Lee Seong-Kweun, a member of the South Korean parliamentary intelligence committee.