Around 2,000 North Korean soldiers deployed to bolster Russia’s war on Ukraine are estimated to have been killed, according to a politician quoting Seoul’s spy agency.
After a security briefing on Tuesday, September 2, MP Lee Seong-kweun told reporters that the National Intelligence Service (NIS) had estimated in April that “the number of war dead was at least 600. But based on updated assessments, it now estimates the figure at around 2,000.”
South Korean and Western intelligence agencies have reported that North Korea sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia in 2024—primarily to the Kursk region—along with artillery shells, missiles, and long-range rocket systems.
Lee said the NIS believes that Pyongyang plans to deploy an additional 6,000 soldiers and engineers to Russia, with 1,000 already having arrived, adding
It is assessed that out of the recent third deployment plan of 6,000 troops, around 1,000 combat engineers have arrived in Russia.
Earlier this year, Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that North Korea would send builders and deminers to the Kursk region.
North Korea only acknowledged in April that it had deployed troops to support Russia’s assault on Ukraine and admitted that some of its soldiers had been killed in combat.
Since then, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has met with the families of soldiers killed fighting for Russia and offered condolences for their “unbearable pain”.
Russia and North Korea signed a military agreement last year, which includes a mutual defence clause, during a rare visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to North Korea. More recently, both leaders were set to attend the same Chinese military parade.
