UK Intelligence: Over 6,000 North Korean Troops Killed in Russia’s Kursk Region

More than 6,000 North Korean troops have been killed during offensive operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, according to British intelligence.

The UK Ministry of Defence said the losses account for over half of the estimated 11,000 North Korean troops initially deployed to the region.
The report adds that only a limited number of North Korean troops have since been redeployed to the area.

“North Korea’s heavy losses were almost certainly the result of large-scale and highly attritional infantry assaults,” the ministry said in an intelligence update.

The UK intelligence report also noted that on June 4, Russian Security Council Secretary and former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea for talks with Kim Jong-un — his second trip to the country in less than three months.

“Shoigu was almost certainly a key intermediary in negotiations over North Korea’s support for Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,” the update said. “DPRK operations remain limited to the Kursk region. Any move to deploy North Korean forces to Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory would almost certainly require the direct approval of both Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.”

In April, Ukraine’s General Staff reported that Russian losses in the Kursk operational area had exceeded 60,000 since the start of the offensive on August 6, 2024.

Of that total (62,400 personnel), 25,200 were classified as irrecoverable, with 36,200 requiring medical evacuation.
An additional 983 Russian soldiers were taken prisoner, according to the General Staff.

Ukrainian forces said that captured North Korean personnel were later involved in prisoner exchanges that enabled the return of hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers from Russian captivity.

The General Staff estimated the DPRK’s casualties in the Kursk region at more than 4,500 killed and wounded.

In April, Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov publicly acknowledged for the first time the participation of North Korean troops in the fighting in the Kursk region.