Summary
North Korean troops sent to Russia to support its war in Ukraine remain sidelined due to poor training and logistical issues, according to Western officials.
These soldiers are expected to relieve Russian troops in secondary positions to free up forces for frontline battles in regions like Kursk, though they are unlikely to see combat in eastern Ukraine.
The war continues to take a massive toll, with over 700,000 Russian soldiers killed or wounded since February 2022, while both sides face challenges replacing losses.
Russia’s reliance on poorly trained recruits and prison conscripts highlights its growing manpower issues.
I thought they had already been getting killed fighting in Ukraine? I haven’t followed the news too closely recently though so I’m probably wrong, just seen some headlines around the place.
IIRC the NK soldiers have been fighting (and dying) in the Ukrainian occupied parts of Russia, and haven’t been deployed to the Russian occupied parts of Ukraine yet.
Yet the article clearly states that they haven’t fought yet? Which is it?
Fog of war and all, so I’m guessing no one knows, but here’s my take: This is more recent so it’s probably more true that they haven’t actually been fighting yet. IIRC those rumors before of them fighting has only been coming from South Korea and Ukraine. Ukraine, while I support them, clearly has a biased motivation to seem as outnumbered and out-gunned as possible to express a need to their allied nations to give them more weapons, and even to try to get them to join the war themselves. South Korea’s bias is pretty obvious. Neither offered much physical evidence except I think a flag they found.
The US is also biased, but are a step removed, so I believe their intelligence on this topic more than either of those two until we get something even more recent and clear. Also it’s hilarious to me imagining them being worse than Russian convicts lol.
Hey this is the same tactic my state’s school system uses to beg for funding. “We’re the 69th worst state for education in the country! :(” lol
The people who were clamoring about North Korean soldiers getting absolutely slaughtered by Ukraine are the same people who repost stories about North Koreans getting executed for not having Kim’s haircut. In the same breath, they’ll cast North Korea as an ultra-propagandized state, and then quote a Radio Free Asia article about how North Koreans are getting bombed out the ass by the Ghost of Kiev.
It’s literally happening in this thread’s comment section. Instead of reconciling how they’ve been duped for the past months about North Korean soldiers fighting in Ukraine, they’ve dug in deeper and started to parrot points about “North Koreans got addicted to masturbation once they reached Russia” - a point which the pentagon has emphatically claimed as unverified and possibly unverifiable. Absolutely no introspection from these people after having been duped by Ukraine’s bonkers “intelligence”.
These people never asked themselves “Huh, why is it that for the last few months I’ve been able to attain 1080p drone footage of Russian soldiers getting grenaded - with so much clarity I can make out the stubble on their faces - yet there has not been a single image of a North Korean casualty?” Whatever Radio Free Asia says is gospel to these people, I suppose.
I had thought so too. Apparently there have been a bunch of false reports on them being involved in fighting. Which makes sense, because their involvement in this conflict was entirely political theater to begin with - they were sent over to try and scare the western allies into backing down or else risk a wider global conflict. USA and others called their bluff and the NK soldiers have been sitting in Russia ever since. They can’t fight and they almost certainly don’t speak any Russian or have enough translators to be an effective assault force in a combat scenario.