Blow for Putin as 600 North Korean soldiers killed after chilling announcement

Six hundred North Korean soldiers have been killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine, South Korea's spy agency has claimed. South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) said North Korea has suffered 4,700 casualties, including the 600 fatalities, on the Russia-Ukraine battlefronts, according to Lee Seong Kweun, one of the politicians who attended a closed-door parliamentary briefing.

The estimate came two days after Pyongyang confirmed for the first time that it had sent troops to help Moscow recapture parts of the Kursk region, which it lost control of to a surprise Ukrainian incursion last year. Lee told reporters the NIS had said 2,000 injured North Korean soldiers were repatriated to North Korea by air or train between January and March.

He cited the NIS as saying the dead North Korean soldiers were cremated in Russia before their remains were sent back home.

The figures show that the number of North Koreans killed and wounded continues to rise. In January, the NIS said about 300 North Korean soldiers had died and another 2,700 had been injured. South Korea's military increased the estimated casualties to 4,000 last month.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un confirmed the presence of North Korean troops in Ukraine on Monday (April 28).

Pyongyang announced Kim decided to dispatch troops to "annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces".

Russian President Vladimir Putin went on to thank North Korea and promised not to forget the sacrifices of North Korean soldiers.

Both Kim and Putin said the North Korean deployment was made under their countries' landmark 2024 defence treaty, which requires each side to provide aid if the other is attacked.

The US, South Korea and their partners say North Korea has been supplying vast amounts of conventional weapons to replenish Russia's depleted stocks as well.

They suspect Russia is providing North Korea with military and economic assistance in return.

Officials in Ukraine, South Korea and the US have said North Korea dispatched 10,000-12,000 troops to Russia in the autumn.

South Korea's military said in March that North Korea sent about 3,000 additional troops to Russia earlier this year.

During its briefing on Wednesday (April 30), the NIS said it assessed that Russia has given North Korea air defence missiles, electronic warfare equipment, drones and technology for spy satellite launches, according to Kim Byung-kee, who attended the briefing.

Kim quoted the NIS as saying 15,000 North Korean labourers have also been sent to Russia under bilateral industrial cooperation programs.

The parliamentarian said the amount of North Korean missiles and artillery sent to Russia was worth billions but the NIS hasn't detected signs Russia has sent North Korea cash in return.

Meanwhile, Pyongyang announced on Wednesday that Kim Jong Un observed the test-firings of missiles from a recently launched destroyer and called for efforts to boost his navy's nuclear attack capabilities to be sped up.

It comes after North Korea last week unveiled the 5,000-ton destroyer equipped with what it called the most powerful weapons systems built for a navy vessel.

During Friday's launch ceremony at the western port of Nampo, Kim hailed the ship's construction as "a breakthrough" in modernising North Korea's naval forces.

Experts say it is North Korea's first destroyer and was likely built with Russian help. They say North Korea's naval forces lag behind South Korea's but still view the destroyer as a serious security threat as it could bolster North Korea's attack and defence capabilities.

The official Korean Central News Agency said on Wednesday that Kim watched the tests of the destroyer's supersonic and strategic cruise missiles, anti-aircraft missile, automatic guns and electronic jamming guns earlier this week.