Russia is deploying “human waves” of North Korean soldiers, the US said on Friday, and at least one soldier captured by Ukraine died of his wounds.
According to White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, some North Korean soldiers committed suicide rather than surrender to Ukrainian forces.
These suicides, he said, were “likely out of fear of reprisals against their families in North Korea if they were captured.”
South Korea's National Intelligence Service had confirmed on Friday that the North Korean soldier captured the previous day had died.
A still from a video released in November by the Russian Defense Ministry's press service shows a Russian soldier aiming a D-30 howitzer at Ukrainian positions in Kursk, where many North Korean soldiers are deployed. (Press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense via AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement on Telegram on Friday that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers were killed or injured in Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces carried out a lightning raid in August.
But Russia has since massed thousands of troops in a counterattack.
Kirby cited a lower death toll among North Koreans and said more than 1,000 soldiers have been killed in the past week.
That's in addition to the more than 1,500 Russian soldiers wounded or killed every day, according to the British Ministry of Defence, which estimated there were more than 45,000 casualties in November, the highest number since the start of the war. reflects the increased pace of Russian operations and offensives.”
To supplement its counterattack, Moscow turned to its ally Pyongyang, which had deployed an estimated 11,000 soldiers in Ukraine, according to estimates by the US and its allies.
Kirby said the North Koreans are “carrying out massive, dismantled attacks on Ukrainian positions in Kursk.” While these “human wave tactics” were ineffective, he acknowledged that Russia's heavy attack on Ukraine's energy infrastructure made it difficult for Ukrainians to get through the winter.
Neither Russia nor North Korea have publicly acknowledged the troop deployment.
North Korean troops are being treated as “expendable,” ordered by their leaders for “hopeless attacks on Ukrainian defenses,” Kirby said.
“These North Korean soldiers appear to be highly indoctrinated and continue to attack even when it is clear that the attacks are futile,” he said.
While the exact number of North Korean soldiers who committed suicide to avoid capture is unclear, Zelenskyy said Friday that while “several” North Korean soldiers had been captured, they were “severely injured and could not be resuscitated,” and suggested that some of them may also have been murdered by comrades.
These troops were sent into battle with “minimal protection,” he said, and suffered “major” losses.
Yet the Ukrainians have failed to capture them, he added. “Their own people are executing them.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
