No North Korean soldier has been seen in combat since mid-January in the Koursk region, says Seoul

After having undergone heavy losses, the troops sent by Pyongyang to help Russia take up this border area from the Ukrainian forces seem to have been withdrawn from the front, reports the South Korean intelligence.

The stampede of North Korean soldiers engaged alongside the Russian forces continues. According to the South Korea intelligence services, they were removed from the front line. “Since mid-January, it turns out that the North Korean troops deployed in the Koursk region, in Russia, have not been engaged in fights”succession National Intelligence Service (NIS), Tuesday, February 4. If “The exact details are still being studied”, “L‘One of the reasons could be the high number of victims. “

According to kyiv, 12,000 North Koreans were sent by Pyongyang to help Russia take up the hundreds of square kilometers that Ukrainians have occupied since August in the Koursk border region. In December, President Volodymyr Zelensky advanced the figure of 3,000 men “Killed or injured”. Losses that Seoul figures for its part around 1,100.

A spokesperson for Ukrainian special forces had already declared on January 31 to the BBC that its units mobilized in the Koursk region had not, either, saw the slightest North Korean soldier on the spot during the last three weeks. The North Koreans captured by the Ukrainian army also delivered the details of their commitment alongside Moscow, and the imparatus that arose. In a video published in mid-January by the Ukrainian president himself, one of them says that they did not know that they were going to fight against Ukraine until their deployment on the front.

In this five -minute video, the soldier is extended to a bed. He reports significant losses in a fight in which he participated in early January. He reveals that he went to Russia with a hundred other North Korean soldiers aboard what seemed to be a civilian boat. “I think it was a Russian ferry, not a military ship, a simple freight boat. And after arriving in Russia, we did part of the train journey”he explains, adding that he had not received a specific training on the use of Russian weapons.

For the moment, neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have confirmed this possible withdrawal. It also remains to be seen whether this is an option temporary or longer term. In an interview with the magazine The War Zone, Published on January 22, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, said he would expect Pyongyang to send additional reinforcements to Russia, including artillery units.