North Korean troops in Kursk: Russia's overwhelming tactic
According to the Unian agency, which cites conversations with Ukrainian military personnel, Koreans participating in clashes in the Kursk region "are trying to overpower the Ukrainian Defense Forces with numerical superiority." At the same time, they are becoming increasingly dangerous as they learn and adapt to the realities of the modern battlefield.
Ukrainian soldiers entered the Kursk region in August 2024, and the fighting continues to this day. Both Kyiv and Western intelligence agencies have denied Russian reports from early March this year about the alleged encirclement of Ukrainian soldiers and their being cut off from support, although it is true that the Russians managed to regain part of this region, largely thanks to about 12,000 North Korean soldiers who Pyongyang sent to support Moscow.
How Koreans are used by Russians
The Unian agency confirms that the Russians use their allies as "cannon fodder," consistently hoping that the sheer number of Koreans will be enough to break the Ukrainians. According to Ukrainian military personnel fighting in the Kursk region, for every group of Russian troops, there are as many as three units of North Korean forces.
"For every Russian unit, there are three groups of North Korean soldiers whom the Russians don't spare at all. Due to their numerical superiority, they simply try to throw such cannon fodder at us, directing them through our minefields and exposing our firing points. In this way, without counting losses, they try to overwhelm us. We are now conducting maneuver defense. The Kursk operation is ongoing," emphasized the deputy commander of the 210th independent assault regiment.
Drones are a nightmare for Koreans
According to Ukrainian estimates, so far, about 4,000 North Korean soldiers have been eliminated from the battlefield. This is mainly due to artillery and drones, against which Kim Jong Un's army was not prepared at all.
Various types of unmanned aerial vehicles are being used on a massive scale in the ongoing war. North Koreans are being decimated mainly by small FPV (first-person view) drones, commercial devices modified by Ukrainians for combat by adding explosive charges (referred to as kamikaze weapons) or grenades or bombs that are dropped on the enemy from above.
Increasingly, fiber-optic drones are being used (also by the Russians), which are characterized by poorer maneuverability but are resistant to jammers and provide better image quality.
Koreans are learning lessons
In a conversation with the Unian agency, Ukrainian military personnel also emphasized that North Korean soldiers are learning lessons from previous waves of attacks. It can be observed that they are changing tactics, now moving in smaller groups and over shorter distances. At the beginning of this year, Ukrainians reported that the next soldiers sent to Russia would undergo training before appearing on the battlefield, helping them better cope with the weapons used in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
"The enemy is trained and furious. The enemy has a clear task—to capture the entire Kursk area as soon as possible and continue to pressure us, especially considering the ongoing political negotiations," added the deputy commander of the 210th independent assault regiment.
