North Korean troops in Ukraine seem stuck in the Cold War, evidence suggests

In the fall, the South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence services came forward with information showing that North Korea was contemplating the deployment of thousands of troops to Russia to support Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.  

Soon thereafter, Seoul and Kyiv provided further evidence revealing that Pyongyang had deployed approximately 11,000 troops to Russia. Just a few weeks later, the North Korean contingent was fighting alongside Russian units in the Kursk Oblast. (Since August, the Ukrainian military has controlled a salient inside Russia in the Kursk Oblast. The Kremlin has diverted more than 50,000 troops in an attempt to push the Ukrainians back.) 

It took only a few weeks of fighting on the frontlines for the Russian leadership to realize that North Koreans were not ready for a modern conflict. In a short period of time, the North Korean contingent took over 4,000 casualties, forcing Moscow to pull the survivors off the line.  

Reports indicate that the North Koreans received reinforcements and once again joined in the fighting.

And we have been able to gather some valuable insights from their performance thus far.  

A common theme among reports of North Korean troops in the conflict is their inadequate level of preparation for the rigors of modern warfare. The North Korean troops are trained and well disciplined. However, their training reflects an antiquated view of combat and they seem stuck in the Cold War.

One of the issues North Korean troops have been facing is drones. The war in Ukraine will go down in history as the first conventional conflict where both combatants weaponized drones to an extent that dictated day-to-day operations. Alongside artillery, drones are the primary source of casualties for both sides today.

Related: Drones and conscription: Taiwan is learning from Ukraine’s fight against Russia

The North Koreans were not prepared to fight death from the sky and started taking heavy losses. As such, they were forced to find solutions on the go to deal with Ukrainian drones.  

In the absence of counter-drone technology – you can either shoot down a drone or use electronic warfare means to wrestle control over it from its original operator – the North Koreans developed some desperate counter-drone tactics, according to an illustration of anti-drone tactics found in the dairy of a killed North Korean soldier.

The North Koreans would create a triangle with three soldiers, one at each end. One soldier would be used as bait while the other two would try to shoot it down. A tactic born out of desperation, its success relies on luck as much as skill.

The Ukrainian forces have managed to capture only a handful of North Koreans alive. In almost all cases, the North Korean troops were captured because circumstances prevented them from committing suicide. One of the few captives described scenes of horrific casualty rates. 

“Almost everyone I came with has been killed. All the men who came with me are gone. In my unit, all my comrades have died. There’s no one left,” a North Korean prisoner told his Ukrainian captors.  

“They’re all gone. I’m the only one left. It was my first time experiencing real combat. When I saw the bodies of my comrades, a lot of thoughts went through my head,” he added. 

According to the North Korean prisoner, Ukrainian artillery and drones were responsible for the majority of their casualties. Moreover, the Russian military did little to support them effectively.  

“Some blew themselves up [to avoid capture], leaving nothing but headless or half-torn bodies. In the dead of winter, with snow falling like this, they lay there and the smell of blood still lingers with me,” he stated. 

If there are a few things to glean of the North Korean involvement in the war thus far is that the are dedicated and disciplined fighters, but don’t have the requisite training and equipment to be effective in the modern battlefield.  

Feature Image: Kim Jong Un with North Korean soldiers. (X via Korean Central News Agency)

Read more from Sandboxx News

• Before the Navy SEALs came the Underwater Demolition Teams
• Fixing the US Navy’s shipbuilding problems starts with the workers, agency analysts say
• Are the Army’s old Beretta M9 and new SIG M17 pistols as similar as people think?
• Game-changing military aircraft that were canceled before they could change the game
• Anduril’s Roadrunner is a unique reusable missile interceptor