At dusk one afternoon last week, 20 wounded North Korean soldiers were rushed to one of the main hospitals in the Russian city of Kursk.
They were escorted to a specially designated floor guarded by police, with access restricted to interpreters and medical personnel.
“We were told to prepare for a special type of patient in the morning,” said one medical staff member who treats North Koreans at the hospital.
“I had heard rumors that North Koreans were fighting there, but I couldn't believe it. No one had actually seen them before,” the medic said.
“We thought it was all fake news until they arrived,” the medic said, adding that most of them had sustained shrapnel injuries.
Another medic at the scene said it was “impossible” to communicate with North Koreans without an interpreter. He added that some North Koreans seemed “frightened and nervous.”
Both doctors spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution for discussing the topic.
The arrival of the North Korean patient was a moment of valuable interaction between the local residents of the Kursk region and the North Korean soldiers, whose presence is still shrouded in secrecy.
Up to 12,000 North Korean troops are being sent to support Russia's war effort, according to U.S. and South Korean officials. Most of these forces are involved in Moscow's counterattack to retake parts of Russian territory in the Kursk region that Ukraine has occupied since the summer in a surprise invasion.
Russia has not officially acknowledged sending North Korean soldiers. At his annual press conference last week, President Vladimir Putin named several units involved in fighting in the Kursk region, but clearly avoided mentioning North Korean troops.
That strategy could become even more difficult after South Korean intelligence said Friday that a wounded North Korean soldier had been captured by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region.
And early signs suggest North Korean forces may be suffering heavy casualties.
On Monday, South Korean military officials reported that more than 1,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or injured since being deployed with Russian forces in Ukraine. If confirmed, these numbers would indicate dramatic losses within just weeks of the North Korean military's arrival. (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy later claimed the number exceeded 3,000).
South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) officials also said in a statement that North Korea appears to be preparing to send additional troops and equipment to Russia.
Both Seoul and Kiev said Moscow was making every effort to deny that North Korea was fighting on the battlefield.
The North Korean military reportedly has uniforms and deceptions to disguise themselves as Russian-Yakuts and Buryats, ethnic minorities from Siberia with similar physical characteristics to South Koreans, who have been employed since the war began. He has been given an ID card.
On Sunday, the Special Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine released a statement. claimed It was a photo of three dead North Korean soldiers. The post was accompanied by a graphic photo of three soldiers in body bags, their bodies covered in blood and bruises.
According to the special forces, the soldiers were issued with fake Russian military documents with forged Russian names and places of birth.
In Kursk, the region's capital with a population of about 500,000 people, the arrival of the North Koreans, who were reportedly deployed to the region as early as October, has attracted little attention.
According to interviews with six residents of the Kursk region, all reported there was no trace of North Korean soldiers, and the Russian government has severely restricted the movement of foreign troops, leaving barracks in remote areas far from civilian areas. It was suggested that they were being kept in prison.
Details about their exact locations and living conditions remain scarce.
Instead, their presence has become a topic of speculation in online chat rooms, with locals questioning each other about whether anyone has actually seen North Koreans on the streets.
Some residents of Kursk question the theory that the Russians need to rely on North Korea to regain territory. “I don't think the North Koreans exist. Our army is strong enough without them,” one Kursk resident told the Guardian.
Some of the injured North Korean soldiers are believed to have been taken by car to a hospital on the outskirts of Moscow, instead of going through a small hospital near the battlefield.
Last Wednesday, Ukrainian security services intercepted A conversation between a Russian soldier, his wife, and a nurse at an unnamed hospital near Moscow.
In the video, which has not been independently verified, the woman says about 200 injured North Koreans were brought in for treatment.
“These Koreans are elite or something. We'll clear out a special ward for them…what, are they privileged?” the nurse said. “Well, they're 'imported,''' my husband answered.
South Korean intelligence says most of the North Koreans fighting are members of the elite shock troops, who have “high morale” but “lack an understanding of modern warfare.” .
From the beginning, military observers questioned the effectiveness of sending troops to a military that had not fought a war since the 1950s, compounded by language barriers and unfamiliar terrain.
According to testimonies from North Korean defectors, North Korean soldiers are systematically underfed and malnourished, even in elite units such as the shock troops. share Together with the BBC.
This week, the South Korean organization “North Korea Human Rights Database Center (NKDB)” noticed Footage of the soldiers reveals that many of them appear to be young, raising questions about their level of military experience.
Lee Sung-eun, a South Korean lawmaker, said on Monday that the high number of casualties caused by North Korea was due to “the unfamiliar battlefield environment in which the North Korean army is used as a disposable front-line attack force, and the North Korean military's lack of combat capability.” It could be the cause.” Counter drone attacks. ”
Analysts suggest that North Korea's military is particularly vulnerable to Ukraine's various types of deadly drones, which have become a feature of modern warfare.
graphic video Footage shared by the Ukrainian military showed a drone circling above North Korean troops as they scrambled to escape in a field in Krushchyna, Kursk region.
in one grainy clip circulating On Russia's pro-war Telegram channel, a North Korean soldier can be seen telling Russian warplanes about his experience being chased by Ukrainian drones. “The drones have been coming,” a North Korean soldier could be heard shouting in Korean. “That's three shots,” the soldier said, pointing at the gun with three fingers up.
Although the North Korean side had no say in whether or not they would be sent, some former soldiers believe that many would have wanted to go and would not lack motivation. .
“If the party wants you to go, you should go,” Ryu Sung-hyun, who defected from the North Korean military in 2019, said at a recent roundtable. discussion Sponsored by NKDB.
Sung Hyun explained that many soldiers see this as an opportunity to “change their destiny” and experience life in a new country, far away from the harsh environment of their homeland.
So far, not a single North Korean soldier has been captured, and anecdotes suggest that various Ukrainian military units are competing to be the first to be captured. However, it may be some time before the first North Korean prisoners appear.
Former North Korean soldiers say surrendering alive was never an option during their time in the military. “When you're in the military, you never know that you have the choice to be a prisoner of war,” Sung-hyun said.
Sung-hyun recalled a famous military song titled “Save the Last Bullet,'' which tells soldiers to save the last bullet to end their own lives. “No matter what happens, you can't be a prisoner,” he said.
