“The Russians “did not recognize” the rare air defense system that North Korean troops dropped in the Kursk region and destroyed it – Forbes January 14, 08:46 Share: North Korean Tor air defense system before destruction (Photo: WarVehicleTracker/X) North Korean troops dropped a rare air defense system in the Kursk region air defense system, which combines a large wheeled landing gear with a radar and launchers from the Tor anti-missile defense system, but the Russians destroyed it”, — write on: ua.news
North Korean anti-aircraft system Thor before destruction (Photo: WarVehicleTracker/X)
North Korean troops transferred a rare air defense system to the Kursk region, which combines a large wheeled chassis with a radar and launchers from the Tor anti-missile defense system, but the Russians destroyed it, Forbes writes.
“The modified North Korean Thor is so unusual that the Russians themselves apparently did not recognize it as belonging to their side. On Friday or the day before, Russian drones spotted a North Korean car and struck it, destroying it,” the publication writes.
It is noted that Russian forces have published a video of their attack on a North Korean vehicle.
Analysts also needed several days to figure out what exactly the Russians blew up in the Kursk region last week.
“Ridiculous… that Russia would shoot down its own SAM… It is possible that the Russian drone teams in Kursk were “left in the dark about the arrival” of a rare North Korean system,” Polish analyst WarVehicleTracker said.
Forbes notes that this was a painful loss for Russian-North Korean troops.
One of the Russian bloggers stated that Ukrainian drones kill a significant part of the occupiers, and the Defense Forces “have achieved a sufficient scale and diversity of their drones and have honed their tactics for their use.”
“The tanks simply do not reach the line to start the attack,” he said.
According to the publication, the Russians need every anti-aircraft battery they can get in order to somehow protect themselves from drone strikes.
“The North Koreans responded with a rocket launcher that few had seen outside of the Pyongyang parade. And then Russian drones destroyed it,” the article says.
What is known about the losses of the North Korean army in the Kursk region
On December 16, 2024, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced that North Korean troops fighting as part of the Russian army in the Kursk region lost at least 30 soldiers killed and wounded between December 14 and 15.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that the Russian military is trying to burn the faces of dead North Korean soldiers who participated in battles against Ukrainian troops in order to hide their losses.
On January 9, 2025, at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, President Zelensky announced that the losses of soldiers from North Korea had already reached 4,000.
On January 11, the head of the Ukrainian state said that the Defense Forces captured two wounded soldiers of the North Korean army in the Kursk region. They were taken to Kyiv, where they were interrogated by SBU investigators.