Ukraine drones kill 50 North Koreans in battle in Kursk region

Read a version of this story in Korean

Around 50 North Korean soldiers were killed in a battle against Ukrainian army drones in the Kursk region this week, video of the battle shared on social media revealed.

It’s the latest evidence that North Korean forces are participating in Russia’s war with Ukraine, a fact that Moscow and Pyongyang are trying to hide, including by allegedly burning the faces off of North Koreans who are killed in action.

The video, shared by Ukraine’s 8th Special Operations Regiment on Facebook, showed a drone attack in the battle fought on Monday.

In the video, what are believed to be North Korean soldiers are seen running away or hiding behind trees when they encounter Ukrainian first-person-view drones, also known as FPV drones.

These FPV drones are said to be able to reach speeds of up to 150 kilometers (93 miles) per hour, meaning that if they encounter each other within 100 meters, it will take less than a second for them to collide.

Andrii Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council, posted on on his Telegram account that North Korean soldiers were no match for the drones, also called unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs.

“The dead DPRK soldiers did not have a visual understanding of the danger from UAVs before the drone strikes, which may indicate that the Russians poorly informed the Koreans about the use of drones at the front,” Kovalenko said.

He also said that the Russian soldiers were seen trying to quickly recover the bodies of North Korean soldiers who died on the front lines, which was different from the way they recovered Russian casualties.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday in an address that preliminary data suggests that the Russians were trying to hide the deaths of North Korean soldiers.

“Unfortunately, we are forced to defend against them as well, even though there is not a single reason for North Koreans to die in this war,” Zelensky said. “The only reason is Putin’s madness, which has consumed Russia and fuels this war.”

Translated by Claire S. Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Edited by Eugene Whong.