In the Kursk region of Russia, their own land has been set aside to attack North Korean soldiers fighting for Moscow. Unlike their Russian counterparts, they advance with almost no armored vehicles.
Ukrainian soldiers and American officials say that when they attack, they don’t pause to regroup or retreat, as the Russians often do when they start taking heavy casualties. Instead, they move through minefields under heavy fire and will send a wave of 40 or more soldiers.
If they take a position, they do not try to secure it. They leave it to the Russian reinforcements while they retreat and prepare for another attack.
They have also developed unique tactics and habits. When fighting a drone, the North Koreans send a soldier as a lure so that others can shoot it down. If they were seriously wounded, they were instructed to detonate a grenade while Ukrainian soldiers approached with one hand on a pin to avoid being captured alive.
The North Koreans, sent to Russia to join Moscow’s troops at Kursk, essentially operate as a separate fighting force, which Ukrainian soldiers and American officials have said differ in language, training and military culture.
“It’s partly two different militaries that have never trained together or operated together, and I think the Russian military culture is not very respectful of, let’s say, the capabilities and norms and operations of partner forces,” said Celeste A. Wallander. He was the Pentagon’s assistant secretary for international security issues.
He said the North Koreans are mainly special operations troops trained for surgical strike missions, but the Russians used them mainly as foot soldiers.
Last fall, North Korea sent about 11,000 troops to the Kursk region in southern Russia to assist Moscow’s forces. About a third of North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded since the first combat operations in early December, Ukrainian and American officials said.
Ukraine’s top military commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, estimated this week that North Korean casualties continued to mount, with almost half of those deployed either wounded or dead, but he said they were “highly motivated, well trained” and “highly motivated.” warned. brave.”
Additional forces are expected “within the next two months,” according to a senior US defense official.
“The New York Times” spoke to dozens of Ukrainian soldiers and commanders who were in direct combat with North Korean soldiers, as well as four US defense officials and military analysts, to put together a portrait of how the North Koreans operate on the battlefield. “The Times” also watched a video of attacks by the Ukrainian military on North Korea.
American officials requested anonymity to speak publicly about details of the battlefield. The Ukrainian soldiers and their commanders have asked only to be named in accordance with military protocol.
With 1.2 million troops, North Korea’s army is among the world’s largest standing armies, and its entry into the war was a deep escalation in a war now entering its fourth year.
Even before North Korea sent troops to Russia, it was a major supporter of Russia’s war effort. Western and Ukrainian intelligence officials say it has fired millions of artillery shells at Moscow, about half of Russia’s daily ammunition, and more than 100 short-range ballistic missiles.
The Kremlin denied the placement Officials said North Korean soldiers had gone to the battlefield and had taken steps to conceal their presence.
For example, the North Koreans were given documents that one Pentagon official described as “pocket junk” — documents that indicated they were from the Russian Far East.
President Vladimir Zelensky said that a military ticket was found in the name of a resident of Tuva, located in southern Siberia, of one of the captured soldiers. Ukrainian intelligence officials said the fake identity used the information of a real Russian citizen.
Ukraine’s allegations of attempts to cover up North Korean involvement could not be independently verified.
Although North Korean soldiers provide additional manpower, the Russians have had difficulty integrating them into the battlefield.
U.S. officials and Ukrainian soldiers said the difficulties ranged from minor issues such as finding uniforms small enough for North Korean soldiers to communications problems that at least twice led to direct clashes between North Korean and Russian forces due to mistaken identity.
According to Ukrainian soldiers, the Russians are taking steps to solve the problems, but have not yet formed a more unified fighting force.
“Now they have started creating groups with an interpreter or someone who speaks Russian with a radio, but these groups are not very effective,” said Andrii, a Ukrainian commander.
Using video from a drone camera, Andrii described the attack earlier this month, offering a window into North Korea’s tactics.
Through thermal imaging, North Korean soldiers stood out as small dark spots on snow-covered fields. They marched about five miles—many were killed along the way—and gathered at the tree line to attack the Ukrainian trench a short distance away.
“There are about 50 of them here,” Andrii said.
Some were injured, as shown in the video, but they did not retreat. They waited for reinforcements and then attacked. Assault teams consisted of five to eight soldiers.
Andrii said the North Koreans are suffering heavy casualties but continue to send in new troops.
“It’s just forward, forward,” he said. “It’s motivation, orders and strict discipline.”
The “shock brigade” tactic, in which soldiers advance with little concern for the chaos that awaits them, features heavily in North Korean military training and propaganda. According to South Korean intelligence officials, this strategy, adopted since the days of the Korean War, has caused many casualties in drone warfare over open and flat terrain. But they said the North would see those losses as a necessary cost to become more capable in modern warfare.
“It feels like they came here specifically to die and they know it,” said platoon commander Oleksii.
Ukrainian intelligence officials said that two North Korean soldiers who were captured on January 9 are also providing information about deployments in Kursk. And Ukrainian Special Operations Forces released excerpts from a series of diaries and communications collected from the corpses of North Korean soldiers, which American officials said turned out to be authentic.
In one of his diaries, a North Korean soldier wrote that he was motivated to join Russia’s fight to save himself from an unspecified crime.
“I wear the uniform of the revolution to protect the Supreme Commander,” he said. “I betrayed the party that trusted me and was ungrateful to the Commander-in-Chief. The sins I committed are unforgivable, but my country gave me a way of salvation, a new beginning in life.”
He also included practical details like how to shoot a drone.
“At the same time, those who feed the drone keep a distance of 7 meters, and those who throw it keep a distance of 10-12 meters. If the bait stops, the drone will also stop moving. At this moment, the shooter destroys the drone.”
North Korea’s tactics forced Ukrainians to adapt.
Drone pilots, for example, said they generally don’t target individual North Koreans, but instead hunt groups.
Given the frequency of North Korean attacks, the standard procedure of placing anti-personnel mines about 15 meters away does not work well. Now, according to the soldiers, they try not to leave more than five meters between the mines.
Interestingly, Ukrainian soldiers said that the North Koreans, unlike the Russians, tried to remove their dead and wounded from the battlefield.
Andrii shared drone video of the process, showing some dead and wounded soldiers being dragged — pulled by the arms or loaded onto sleds — while others moved into position.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, the North Korean forces stationed in Ukraine include about 500 officers and at least three generals.
According to US defense officials, the generals are stationed at the Russian command and control headquarters, where targets are decided.
A senior US defense official said commanders decide when they will need artillery and how long to wait before ground troops can maneuver. They synchronize with troops in the field so troops don’t talk to their Russian counterparts, trying to reduce misunderstandings.
Ukrainian soldiers who fought in Kursk said North Korea’s tactics were costly but effective.
“The Koreans are starting to push the front line, targeting the less defended areas, and in that way they are wearing down our troops,” Platoon Commander Oleksii said.
Fighting one of the world’s largest armies was difficult enough, he said, but fighting two was “beyond” the possible.
Capturing the prisoners was difficult because the North Koreans were trained not to be taken alive, the soldiers said, and Russian drone operators kept tabs on them.
“If the Russians see Koreans being captured, they use drones to finish them off — killing both Koreans and our soldiers,” Oleksii said, adding that some of his brigade had recently been killed that way.
Ukrainian soldiers said that the North Koreans should not be underestimated.
“They are being tested, really being tested,” drone commander Andrii said. According to him, they had no combat experience, but “now they’re here, they’re getting it and they’re very strong.”
Liubov Sholudko Contributed reports from Ukraine and Choe Sang-Hun Contributed from Seoul.
