The North Korean soldiers who joined their Russian allies in battle against Ukrainian forces were pulled out on the front line after suffering strong causality, according to Ukrainian and American officials.
The North Korean troops, sent to strengthen Russian forces trying to reject a Ukrainian offensive within the borders of Russia, were not seen in front of for about two weeks, the officials said after requested the anonymity to discuss military issues and sensitive intelligence.
The arrival of about 11,000 North Korean troops in Russia in November caused alarm in Ukraine and among its allies in the West, which feared that their deployment reported a significant escalation in the war of almost three years. But in just three months, the North Korean ranks decreased by half, according to General Oleksandr Syrsky, the main military commander of Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops who fought against the North Koreans described them as fierce warriors. But the disorganization in their ranks and the lack of cohesion with the Russian units quickly triggered the victims, said a Ukrainian official. Since they arrived on the battlefield, the North Korean soldiers have been left to take care of themselves, advancing with a few armored vehicles and rarely make a break to group or fall back, According to Ukrainian officials and troops on the front line.
The critics of the Ukrainian military leadership criticized the offensive of last year in the Russian Kursk region as a waste of resources at a time when the military inside Ukraine falter in front of a prolonged Russian attack. But President Volodymyr Zelensky from Ukraine has insisted on keeping the territory as long as possible, as a bargaining chip in future peace negotiations.
The more Ukrainian troops hold Kursk, the more embarrassing for the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin is. Although Mr. Putin promised to expel Ukrainian forces, he was hesitant in deviating troops from the main Russian operations in Eastern Ukraine, in part to strengthen his hand in future negotiations.
In that fray he took a step Kim Jong-un, the North Korea leader and an ally of Mr. Putin. It was Mr. Kim who proposed the sending of troops to help the Russians to Kursk, according to US intelligence agencies, although Mr. Putin rapidly embraced the idea.
Many of the soldiers are among the most trained special operational troops of North Korea, but the Russians seem to have used them as soldiers, sending them forward in waves through fields unconscious of earth mines to be mowed by a strong Ukrainian fire.
American officials said that the decision to extract the North Korean troops from the first line may not be permanent. It is possible, they said, that the North Koreans could return after receiving additional training or after the Russians have devised new ways to deploy them to avoid these strong victims.
In any case, the struggle to expel Kursk’s Ukrainian forces is far from over. A few weeks ago, Ukrainian forces launched a new offensive in the region, but were hammering from the Russian defenses. Although the Ukrainians took about 500 miles of Russian territory when they crossed the border last summer, the Russian forces were able to resume about half.
The Ukrainian raid in the Kursk region in August shocked the Kremlin. It was the first time in 10 years of fighting between the two countries, including the Vast Scala of Russia in 2022, that Ukrainian troops had taken and detained the Russian territory.
In a speech this week, Zelensky praised Ukrainian troops that fight in the Kursk region, stating that their efforts had created “a buffer area” to protect the northern Ukrainian territory -eastern from further Russian offensives.
Mr. Kim most likely has his motivations to help Kursk Russia. American officials say that he hopes that Mr. Putin will repay the favor in the future, providing help for the missile programs of North Korea and diplomatic support for the United Nations.
North Korea has also provided Russia millions of artillery bullets, which now represent about half of the ammunition that Russia shoots daily, together with rockets and missiles, according to western and Ukrainian intelligence officials. Russia has provided North oil Korea, food and some weapons updates.
Last summer, a few months before Ukraine had launched its foray into Kursk, Putin met Mr. Kim in Pyongyang, where they restored a treatise on the era of the cold war of mutual defense and military cooperation among their countries .