North Korean troops sent to fight alongside Russia in its war against Ukraine have not been seen in battle for several weeks, raising speculation that they have been withdrawn after suffering heavy losses, according to South Korea’s spy agency.
The National Intelligence Service in Seoul this week confirmed media reports that North Korean troops had been pulled from the frontline around the middle of January.
North Korea began sending an estimated 11,000 troops to the Russian Kursk region in late 2024, soon after the North’s ruler, Kim Jong-un, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, agreed a mutual defence pact designed to strengthen their alliance against what they called a US-led “western hegemony”.
Yea I haven’t seen actual proof, and every source is a second-hand “sources say.”
All I have seen was two allegedly captured North Korean POW’s. Not much to show for a supposed force of 10k
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn57z316y02o
The keyword there is “allegedly.” There wasn’t hard proof of them actually being from the DPRK, and moreover that’s not 10k like you pointed out correctly.
It’s not like Russia is going to issue press releases on its troop deployments.
Sure, but that doesn’t mean “sources say” is a good source coming from the same “sources” that claimed Iraq had WMD. The US and ROK Intelligence agencies aren’t honest about their adversaries.
We know the DPRK and RF have a mutual defense treaty, and that the DPRK has been sending munitions. This has overwhelming evidence. What does not, appears to be DPRK troops fighting on the front lines or suffering “massive losses.”