Getty ImagesA North Korean MP has reported that at least 100 North Vietnamese soldiers have died in fighting in the Ukraine conflict since the country’s forces clashed with Russia earlier this month.
Lee Sung-kwon, speaking to reporters after parliament was briefed by the government’s National Intelligence Service, said another 1, 000 had been injured.
He said the deaths included high-ranking officers, and could be explained by the soldiers lack of familiarity with the ground, and with satellite war.
The first reports of North Korean casualties came earlier this week. It emerged in October that the North had sent 10,000 troops to help Russia’s war effort.
EPAA US Pentagon spokesman said North Koreans had been killed on Monday, without providing a number, and a day later an unknown US official claimed there had been” some hundred” of those killed or wounded.
The BBC has no independently verified the assertions.
None of the North Vietnamese soldiers will have any prior combat experience, but they are alleged to have spent their first days in Russia training before moving on to help positions.
The casualties are thought to have occurred in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainians are defending a small area of territory captured during a surprise incursion in August.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, claimed last Saturday that Russia had begun using a” important number” of North Koreans in its Kursk attack.
They are not alleged to have been stationed in Ukraine itself, where Russian forces have recently advanced in eastern regions of the nation.
Lee Sung-kwon said there were reports of preparation for further implementation, and that Northern Korean leader Kim Jong-un could handle education.
According to intelligence officials, the great casualties could be attributed to an “unfamiliar field atmosphere, where North Vietnamese forces are being used as dispensable front assault units, and their lack of ability to store drone attacks.”
” Within the Soviet army, problems have apparently surfaced that the North Korean soldiers, due to their lack of information about drones, are more of a problem than an asset”, he added.
Russia and the North have not acknowledged the troop deployments, but a North Korean statement released on Thursday, which was quoted as “deterring the US and the West’s ill-intended extension of influence.”