South Korean intelligence agency: North Korea increases troops again to Russia

North Korean authorities have once again dispatched troops to Russia. According to the South Korean National Intelligence Service, on Thursday (February 27), it was reported that North Korea appears to have increased its troops sent to Russia, and the National Intelligence Service is currently trying to determine the accurate size of the troops being deployed.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea stated that since the first week of February, North Korean troops have once again been deployed to the Kursk battlefield in western Russia. Some opinions speculate that North Korean troops temporarily withdrew from the battlefield due to heavy casualties, and this time they may be returning to combat after replenishing and reorganizing their forces.

Reported by Yonhap News Agency, several South Korean military sources revealed earlier that South Korea captured movement indicating that North Korea has deployed over 1,000 additional troops to Russia between January and February this year, and is preparing to continue sending troops. These troops may have departed from Chongjin Port by ship or left the Rason area by train, and their specific locations cannot be confirmed at the moment as they have evaded surveillance by the South Korean military.

In October last year, more than 11,000 North Korean soldiers were sent to the Kursk battlefield, with over 4,000 casualties. It is also reported that there is no indication that bodies of fallen North Korean soldiers have been sent back to North Korea, possibly due to cost considerations leading North Korea to forgo the retrieval of the bodies.

In January of this year, the South Korean National Intelligence Service estimated that 300 North Korean soldiers had been killed in combat, with an additional 2,700 injured. Ukrainian President Zelensky estimated that the casualties among North Korean soldiers amounted to 4,000.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, in the daily updates of its war report, stated that from the outbreak of the war in February 2022 until December 3 last year, Russia had suffered losses of 745,700 personnel. Since October 20 last year, the daily losses of Russian troops have been steadily increasing. On November 11, Russian military casualties reached 1,950 people, and on November 29, it reached a record high of 2,030 casualties.