Ukrainian army: North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia given fake military documents with Russian names and places of birth
According to CNN, the Ukrainian military said that North Korean troops serving for Russia were given fake military credentials with Russian identities and birthplaces. The announcement coincides with allegations made by Ukraine that Russia is attempting to conceal the existence of foreign combatants in the war.
Ukraine’s special forces said in a statement on Sunday that they had captured the papers of three North Korean troops and killed them in the Kursk area of Russia. According to a CNN report, the statement claimed that their military identification documents “lack all the stamps and photos, the patronymic names are given in the Russian manner, and the place of birth is signed as the Republic of Tuva,” which is a region of southern Siberia that borders Mongolia.
Since the signatures on the papers are in Korean, the statement claims that this “indicates the real origin of these soldiers.” The statement said, “This case once again confirms that Russia is resorting to any means to hide its losses on the battlefield and conceal foreign presence.”
According to estimates from US, Ukrainian, and South Korean intelligence, there are between 11,000 and 12,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia. Some of these soldiers have already participated in combat operations alongside Russian forces to help retake parts of Kursk that were captured during the Ukrainian offensive in August, CNN reported.
North Korean troops seem to have sustained significant casualties in the area, according to US and Ukrainian authorities. According to a senior U.S. official, since October, North Korea has suffered “several hundred” fatalities and injuries in Kursk.
According to a South Korean politician who cited data from the nation’s intelligence agency, over 100 North Korean troops are thought to have died and almost 1,000 others have been wounded since being sent to Kursk.
50 North Korean troops were killed and 47 others wounded in three days of battle with Russian soldiers in Kursk, according to Ukraine’s special forces on December 17.
According to a CNN story, one Ukrainian battalion said that North Koreans had used “same tactics as 70 years ago” to conduct infantry assaults while wearing different uniforms from the Russians. This was presumably a reference to the Korean War. Nonetheless, neither North Korea nor Russia have admitted that North Korean forces are present in Russia.
Russia has come under fire from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for allegedly attempting to conceal the identities of North Korean soldiers killed in combat by using drastic measures.
On December 17, Zelenskyy posted a statement on X that said, “Russians are trying… to literally burn the faces of North Korean soldiers killed in battle.” He posted a video allegedly depicting Russian forces burning North Korean soldiers’ corpses with the statement.
A Ukrainian frontline drone unit posted a video on December 15 that claimed to show the dead of over 20 North Korean troops arranged on a field of ice. The quality of the footage was insufficient to confirm the identities of the bodies shown.
