More than 1,000 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded fighting Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region in the past week, and a few chose suicide over surrender, the Biden administration said on Friday.
The heavy North Korean losses would amount to almost 10 percent of Pyongyang’s deployment figures to Russia. The announcement was the latest turn in the American effort to publicly criticize both President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-un, for sending ill-prepared and ill-equipped troops to a foreign front line to aid Russian efforts in its war with Ukraine.
John F. Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, volunteered the latest numbers of North Korean casualties during a call with reporters. “I hope they’re loading up their commanders with a bunch of body bags, because they’re clearly going to need it,” Mr. Kirby said of the North Koreans.
Mr. Kirby said that American officials also had reports that some North Korean soldiers had killed themselves rather than surrendering to Ukrainian forces, “likely out of fear of reprisal against their families in North Korea in the event that they’re captured.” He did not elaborate on how North Korean troops might be taking their own lives but said that administration officials believed that Russian and North Korean military leaders “are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses.”
North Korean troops began arriving in Russia this fall, and some Western officials initially believed it was a sign that the Kremlin had reached out in a desperate need for more soldiers. But U.S. intelligence agencies said this month that they had since assessed that the deployment was North Korea’s idea and not Russia’s, though Mr. Putin quickly embraced it.
The North Koreans have largely embedded with Russian units mounting a counteroffensive against a contingent of Ukrainian soldiers that has been holding territory in the Kursk region of Russia since the summer.
U.S. officials do not believe Mr. Kim has received anything immediate in return. Instead, they say, he appears to be hoping that Russia will repay the favor in the future by offering support in diplomatic disputes, assisting if a crisis breaks out and providing technology.
The troops that North Korea has deployed are from its “Storm” Corps, special forces that are among the military’s best trained and most heavily indoctrinated. But they were badly prepared for drone attacks and for the unfamiliar terrain far from their isolated homeland. Many of the North Korean troops appear to be malnourished, officials have said. North Korean soldiers also have no real-world combat experience.
Nonetheless, South Korean officials have assessed that Mr. Kim appears to be preparing to send more troops to Russia, as he sees Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II as an opportunity to advance his own military and diplomatic ambitions.
“These North Korean soldiers appear to be highly indoctrinated, pushing attacks, even when it is clear that those attacks are futile,” Mr. Kirby said.
In August, Ukrainian forces advanced into Russian territory, in the Kursk region, shocking the Kremlin and surprising even the United States. It was the first time in 10 years of fighting between the two countries that Ukrainian troops had taken and held Russian territory, including during Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
American officials initially expressed skepticism about the wisdom of Ukraine’s incursion and said that it might be a drain on resources badly needed on the front lines in Ukraine. But some American officials have changed their assessment, saying that Ukraine has so far managed to kill a large number of counterattacking Russian forces without incurring many casualties.
