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in its war against Ukraine have not been seen in battle for several weeks, raising speculation that they have been withdrawn after suffering heavy losses, according to South Korea’s spy agency.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”.

  • Arcturus@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    42
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    edit-2
    4 hours ago

    Whoa it’s almost like they weren’t there in the first place :0

    Guess they couldn’t keep the lie going forever lol

    • Cowbee [he/they]
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      20
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      4 hours ago

      Yea I haven’t seen actual proof, and every source is a second-hand “sources say.”

        • Cowbee [he/they]
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 hour ago

          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.

        • Cowbee [he/they]
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          2 hours ago

          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.”

    • Sagittarii@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      4 hours ago

      Inventing a “problem” then “solving” it. Looks like they’re learning from trump

    • eldavi
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      4 hours ago

      it seems like it was a team of observers and probably there to measure the success of their rockets; like the americans are in ukraine to train them on how to use american weaponry.