“North Korea to deploy new military personnel to Russia by mid-March 2025, reports say”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“These new North Korean forces are unlikely to significantly improve Russian operations and will likely face the same high casualties and complications when interacting with Russian forces as the current North Korean contingent, provided that the Russian command continues to use North Korean forces in the same way , as it has been until now,” the report says.
ISW estimates that the entire North Korean contingent in Russia could be killed or wounded in action by about mid-April 2025 at current casualty rates, and a new deployment of North Korean troops, either to reinforce the current group or to rotate existing forces, is likely , aims to support the pace of Russian operations, despite heavy losses of about 30,000 – 45 000 people (both killed and wounded) every month.
Analysts recall that North Korean forces are reported to have conducted at least a month of training in eastern Russia before deploying to the Kursk region for further near-rear exercises in November 2024 and joining combat operations at least as early as December 2024.
This timeline is roughly consistent with the possibility that a new contingent of North Korean troops could be trained and replace the shrinking North Korean group in the Kursk region by mid-April 2025, assuming the next reported group of North Korean troops trains as much as their predecessors, the Institute for the Study of War suggests.
The day before, The New York Times, citing a senior official of the US Defense Ministry, wrote that in the next two months, the DPRK will send reinforcements to the North Korean military, which is already fighting against Ukraine on the side of Russia.
Read also: Ukraine is ready to hand over prisoners from the DPRK if Kim Jong Un organizes an exchange – Zelensky
It became known about the arrival of the first North Korean troops in Kurshchyna last fall.
According to the USA, South Korea and Ukraine, 10,000 to 12,000 North Korean soldiers arrived in Russia in October. They were involved in the war on the side of Russia, units of the DPRK are used in the Kursk region.
Moscow and Pyongyang did not confirm the direct participation of the North Korean military in the fighting.
On January 11, Ukraine reported the capture by the Defense Forces of two soldiers from North Korea in Kurshchyna.
The capture by the Ukrainian military of two North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation was also confirmed by the intelligence agency of South Korea. The intelligence of the Republic of Korea quoted one of the captured North Korean soldiers as saying that “among the North Korean soldiers in Russia, there were ‘significant’ losses.” It also noted that one of the captives went without food and water for four to five days before he was captured by Ukrainian forces.