Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Sept. 9, 2024. (Chad McNeeley/Defense Department)
Of the 12,000 North Korean troops deployed to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at least 3,800 have been killed or wounded, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Pyongyang could deploy up to 40,000 more troops to fill that, Zelenskyy said Monday during a three-hour interview on the Lex Fridman Podcast.
In addition to deploying its soldiers to Russia’s western front, the North’s communist regime provided Moscow with 3.7 million artillery shells for its fight, according to Zelenskyy.
Troops train at an undisclosed military base in North Korea, March 6, 2024, in this image from the state-run Korean Central News Agency. (KCNA)
North Korea “can bring many people,” he said through an interpreter.
South Korea is continuing to monitor the North’s military cooperation with Russia, including its troop deployments, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Jeon Ha-kyu said Tuesday at a news conference in Seoul.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged mutual aid if either country was at war, following their June 18 summit in Pyongyang.
U.S. and South Korean military and intelligence agencies have estimated between 10,000 and 12,000 North Korean troops have deployed to Russia since October.
The allies have also accused North Korea of shipping ballistic missiles and thousands of containers filled with artillery shells to Russia, an act that would violate U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The latest casualty count comes nearly two weeks after a White House spokesman said the North Korean forces were suffering heavy losses on the battlefield.
North Korean troops were using “human wave tactics” in the Kursk region that led to over 1,000 casualties within their ranks in late December, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Dec. 27 in Washington, D.C.
Moscow and Pyongyang have regarded North Korean troops as “expendable” and have ordered them to conduct “hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses,” Kirby said.
In a video address Monday, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces were continuing to maintain a buffer zone around the Kursk region.
Roughly 15,000 enemy troops have been killed and 23,000 wounded since Ukraine launched its Kursk offensive in August, Zelenskyy said Monday.
“What’s important is that the occupier cannot currently redirect all this force to other directions, in particular the Donetsk, Sumy, Kharkiv or Zaporizhzhia regions,” Zelenskyy said in his video address. “I thank all our warriors who are bringing the war back to Russia and providing Ukraine with greater security and strength.”
The White House on Dec. 30 authorized a security assistance package worth $2.5 billion for Ukraine. The U.S. package of surface-to-air missiles, artillery shells and other military gear adds to $3.5 billion in funds sent to aid Ukraine’s government the same day.
