North Korean troops sent to support Russia are being used as ‘human mine detectors’ on the front lines of the invasion of Ukraine.
The soldiers are deployed across a battlefield until they are blown up one after another Lieutenant Colonel ‘Leopard’ of Ukraine’s 33rd ‘Big Cats’ Battalion, who revealed that their lives have little value to their higher-ups.
“The North Koreans have a ‘meat grinder’ strategy. Where Ukrainians use a mine clearance vehicle, they only use people,” he told the newspaper Times.
‘They just walk in a line, three to four meters apart, if one is blown up, the medics go after it to pick up the dead, the crowd moves on one after the other. This is how they pass minefields.’
Leopard said the soldiers sent by Kim Jong Un often refuse to be captured alive, preferring to be killed in battle or simply run away as their commanders watch unfazed.
The US estimates that 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to fight for Russia – about 4,000 of whom have already been killed on the battlefield, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Drone footage captured last month shows Russia’s meat grinder tactic in action, with two dozen North Korean soldiers slowly jogging in clusters toward the Ukrainian front line across an open, snow-covered battlefield as part of “suicidal charges.”
They did not try to take cover, which “was like a dream for our mortars and machine guns,” Ukrainian veteran Vitaliy, 35, told police. Times.
North Korean soldiers still have to learn how to use drones. Pictured above is a North Korean soldier who was filmed by a Ukrainian drone
Macabre image is believed to include dead North Koreans killed fighting for Russia in the Kursk region
Faces of North Korean soldiers revealed in first close-up videos as they fight for Putin in the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine
Vitaliy fought in the Battle of Bakhmut, where waves of Russian murderers and rapists were sent to their deaths as apparent cannon fodder.
‘The Wagner group had a simple order: advance or die. It seemed exactly the same to the Koreans,” he said.
The Khorne Group – an organization affiliated with Kyiv’s armed forces in the 116th Separate Mechanized Brigade and the 95th Air Assault Brigade – shared footage of what appeared to be North Korean soldiers stunned by a Ukrainian FPV drone overhead.
Another dark clip showed a line of what was believed to be the bodies of Pyongyang soldiers lying in blood-covered snow next to slain Russians after their troops were virtually wiped out.
The Khorne Group said: “The long-awaited North Koreans. Weakness and courage are their tactics, their trump card is good fitness.’ They “applied the same tactics as 70 years ago,” Khorne Group added, referring to the Korean War.
Ukrainian and South Korean officials say the North Koreans have proven to be a liability to Russian forces due to their outdated battlefield tactics, while inexperience in drone warfare makes them easy targets for Kiev’s battle-hardened fighters.
But Leopard said that while North Korean soldiers are not nearly as heavily armed as their Russian counterparts, that will change the longer they are involved in the war.
“North Koreans only use small arms, machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars, maximum – that is the extent of their technology,” he said.
‘They don’t use drones yet, only the Russians. But I suspect they are starting to learn this, and the longer the war goes on, the more likely they are to innovate,” he added.
The Khorne Group – an organization affiliated with Kyiv’s armed forces in the 116th Separate Mechanized Brigade and the 95th Air Assault Brigade – shared images of what appeared to be North Korean soldiers stunned by a Ukrainian FPV drone overhead
Reports say new images show North Korean troops on the front lines fighting for Vladimir Putin in Russia’s Kursk region, partly occupied by Ukraine
A North Korean soldier is seen hiding from a Ukrainian drone
The US previously warned that North Korea “benefits significantly” from deploying its troops in Ukraine because it makes them a more capable fighting force.
Deputy US Ambassador Dorothy Camille Shea told the UN Security Council that nearly 12,000 North Korean soldiers have been training in Russia and fighting Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region.
Shea said Kim Jong Un’s soldiers “benefit significantly from receiving Russian military equipment, technology and experience, enhancing the country’s ability to wage war against its neighbors.”
She added: “The DPRK, in turn, will likely be eager to leverage these improvements to boost arms sales and military training contracts worldwide.”
South Korea’s U.N. Ambassador Joonkook Hwang told the council that North Korean soldiers “are essentially slaves of Kim Jong Un, brainwashed to sacrifice their lives on distant battlefields to raise money for his regime and to secure advanced military technology from Russia.”
This comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Russian forces “burned the faces” of dead North Korean soldiers to hide their identities, sharing macabre images to illustrate his claim.
Citing a South Korean intelligence report, MP Lee Seong-kweun said yesterday: “In December, they (North Korean troops) engaged in actual fighting, resulting in at least 100 deaths.
Russia burns faces of dead North Korean soldiers to hide losses, says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
Analysts and officials say North Koreans fought with seriously outdated tactics
“The National Intelligence Service also reported that the number of injured is expected to be close to 1,000.”
Despite these losses, the agency also said it had detected signs that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was preparing to train a new special operations force to ship westward.
Lee noted that the Union’s elite Storm Corps – from which the initial deployment had emerged – “had the capacity to send reinforcements.”
The NIS also predicted “that Russia could offer mutual benefits” for a new deployment, including “modernizing North Korea’s conventional weapons.”
The lawmaker added that “several North Korean casualties” had already been attributed to Ukrainian missile and drone attacks and training accidents, with the highest ranking “at least at the level of a general.”
NIS said the high number of casualties could be attributed to the “unfamiliar battlefield environment, where North Korean forces are deployed as expendable front-line strike units, and their lack of ability to counter drone attacks,” Lee said.
“Complaints have reportedly surfaced within the Russian military that North Korean troops are a liability rather than an asset due to their lack of drone knowledge.”
Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Combating Disinformation in Kiev, said: “The tactics of the Russians in the Kursk direction are as follows: North Korean soldiers are gathered in the forest and driven to narrow parts at the same time in different directions to storm. . Their losses are significant.”
This image shared by Zelensky shows North Korean soldiers
Macabre image is believed to include dead North Koreans killed fighting for Russia in the Kursk region
Ukraine is in the midst of launching a second offensive in Russia’s Kursk region and faces a barrage of long-range missiles and continued advances from Russia as both sides try to put themselves in the strongest possible negotiating position before Trump comes to power .
Zelensky called the Kursk offensive “one of our greatest victories,” which cost Russia and North Korea, which sent soldiers to help Russia in Kursk, thousands of troops.
Zelensky said the offensive resulted in North Korea suffering 4,000 casualties, but US estimates put the number lower at around 1,200.