Mick Hartley

The Daily NK reports on North Korean troops in Ukraine:

The White House’s disclosure during a briefing late last year that around 1,000 North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia had been killed or wounded shocked the international community. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service likewise determined that around 10,000 North Korean troops had been sent to the front line in Russia’s Kursk region, and approximately 1,000 had been killed or wounded. Concerns that the North Korean troops sent to the Russia-Ukraine war would become cannon fodder seem to be becoming a reality.

Videos and photos appearing on Ukrainian military social media accounts are even more shocking. Experts note scenes of North Korean soldiers coming under drone attack as they cross snow-covered fields and images of dead soldiers with their faces destroyed. They say such footage demonstrates how North Korean soldiers — deployed to the front with little experience in actual combat — are dying in vain, along with North Korean-style barbarity that habitually engages in inhumane behavior in the name of “security.”

In particular, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces released the diary of a dead North Korean soldier, with many experts noting the North Korean government’s contempt for human life. Given how the soldier talked of his “ingratitude” and “chance for redemption,” it appears the North Korean authorities sent him to the danger zone after promising to pardon him or reduce his prison sentence.

Daily NK asked a senior military official inside North Korea about the government’s view of the casualties in Russia, measures taken regarding those casualties and future plans.

Unfortunately this senior military official is not very informative – it's a surprise, frankly, that he'd talk to the Daily NK at all. So…

Daily NK: Are the North Korean authorities aware of fatalities suffered by North Korean forces deployed to Russia?

“The state has already received reports of the situation, with information delivered and reported as normal through the military command system. The military manages related information moment to moment, while the Supreme Command and Central Military Commission strictly manage the information regularly once a month through its reporting line.”

Daily NK: Has word of North Korean fatalities spread within the military?

“Indoctrination activities are being planned in the Storm Corps and other units from which combat personnel have been sent to Russia since authorities predict potential individual unrest or rumors.”

Hmm. Well, thanks for that.

Daily NK: With casualties seemingly mounting, why hasn’t a decision to withdraw been made?

“The decision to deploy troops to the battlefield was made to maintain the international military relationship between North Korea and Russia and to ensure the strategic national interests of the North Korean and Russian peoples, so a withdrawal is not being considered.”

It's all been decided between Putin and Kim Jong-un. They both know that the North Korean troops are just cannon fodder, and they don't care.