North Korea first sent troops to Russia in October, according to Western intelligence. So why is there no clear footage of them on the battlefield?
What happened?
On December 16, the Ukrainian military’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) and the U.S. Department of Defense announced the first major losses among North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian troops against Ukraine.
- The HUR reported that at least 30 North Koreans were killed or injured in battles near the villages of Plekhovo, Vorozhba, and Martynovka in Russia’s Kursk region. However, the agency did not provide direct evidence of these claims.
- That same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video on his Telegram channel purportedly showing North Korean soldiers. The footage includes three clips: the first shows a Russian-speaking serviceman filming what appear to be North Korean men in Russian military uniforms with his cellphone; the second shows alleged drone footage of North Koreans in trenches; and the third shows Russian soldiers mutilating the bodies of what are purportedly North Korean soldiers to hinder identification. The locations and other details about the footage were not specified.
- Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder stated that the U.S. had observed “indications” of North Korean forces suffering casualties but did not provide further details.
- On December 17, an anonymous U.S. military source told journalists that “several hundred” North Koreans had been killed or wounded by Ukrainian forces, though he didn’t provide evidence.
- On December 19, South Korean parliament member Lee Seong Kwon shared intelligence data indicating that at least 100 North Koreans had been killed and 1,000 wounded in the Kursk region.
- Additional indirect evidence came from a drone video posted on December 15 by the Khorne Group, a unit within Ukraine’s 116th Separate Mechanized Brigade. The footage shows soldiers wearing white headgear with wide brims — an item not found in Russian Armed Forces uniforms.
So there’s no direct evidence of North Korean losses? Can the reports be trusted?
The short and honest answer is that we don’t know. Based on the information currently available, there doesn’t seem to be any direct evidence of North Koreans on the front lines or casualties among them. However, there is a great deal of indirect evidence. In addition to statements from (admittedly biased) parties who are clearly informed about the combat situation, recently released footage appears to support the idea that North Korean soldiers are involved in the fighting. For example:
- On December 14, the Telegram channel Zigun, which shares combat footage from Ukrainian soldiers’ perspective, posted a video of a Russian assault on Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region, allegedly involving North Korean soldiers. The behavior of the attackers in the video — charging the Ukrainian positions in tight groups of several dozen — was unusual for Russian troops, who typically take a more cautious approach and avoid direct frontal assaults. However, the camera’s distance from the soldiers makes it impossible to definitively confirm their nationality.
- A few more details about footage reportedly filmed on the same day and in the same location were shared by Yuriy Butusov, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian outlet Censor.net. According to him, the video captured the first-ever large-scale attack by North Koreans on Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) positions near the village of Malaya Loknya in the Kursk region. Over 200 North Korean soldiers allegedly participated in the assault, supported by fire from Russian troops. The assault groups “charged straight ahead, not stopping even under direct fire and strikes from firepower,” Butusov noted. He also claimed that a few days earlier, on December 10, North Koreans attacked AFU positions near the village of Plekhovo. However, Butusov did not provide additional documentary evidence. According to his information, no North Korean soldier has yet been captured by the AFU.
- On December 15, the Telegram channel of Ptakhi Madyara, a regiment of the AFU’s Unmanned Systems Forces, posted a video showing 22 corpses filmed by a Ukrainian drone in the Kursk region, some of which are allegedly North Korean soldiers. According to the Ukrainian serviceman narrating the video, the faces of the North Korean soldiers were hidden under hoods. As a result, this, too, is not direct evidence of their participation.
Wait — so thousands of North Korean soldiers arrived in Russia months ago, yet there’s no proof of them fighting?
The level of secrecy is indeed striking. Even so, there’s a lot we do know about the North Korean contingent — from a wide variety of sources.
- Ukrainian, American, and South Korean authorities largely agree on their estimates of the number of North Korean soldiers who have arrived in Russia: around 10,000–12,000.
- Western military analysts have suggested that these are not regular troops but rather trained special forces. The total strength of North Korea’s special operations forces is estimated to be around 200,000 personnel.
- In mid-October, several videos appeared on Ukrainian Telegram channels that were purportedly filmed at the Sergeyevsky training ground in Russia’s Primorsky Krai. The footage allegedly showed North Korean soldiers marching on the parade ground and receiving uniforms inside a building. Satellite images of similar scenes were released by South Korean intelligence. OSINT analysts later confirmed that the footage was indeed shot in Sergeyevka, and the uniforms issued to the “North Koreans” belonged to the Russian Armed Forces. However, even these documented pieces of evidence have been difficult to verify as definitive proof of North Korean special forces’ presence in Russia.
- In October, the head of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), Kyrylo Budanov, predicted that it would take several weeks to prepare North Korean forces for combat and that they would join Russian troops on the front line by November. In the end, it seems the process took nearly two months. At the same time, Budanov suggested even back then that North Korean soldiers might join the fighting in the Kursk region — a prediction that appears to have been accurate.
- The partnership between Russia and North Korea has become a significant factor in the war in recent months, partly because Pyongyang’s involvement in the conflict served as the formal pretext for the U.S. to lift its restriction on long-range missile strikes deep into Russian territory in November.
- One of the most high-profile such strikes was a Storm Shadow missile attack on a command post in the Kursk region at the end of November. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the strike wounded a North Korean general and killed several North Korean officers.
Reports of North Korean troops participating in the war have been numerous in Ukrainian and Western media, and they show no sign of slowing. While we have yet to see decisive, direct evidence, it’s hard to imagine that such a broad array of indirect indicators (even the Kremlin and Russia’s Foreign Ministry avoid outright denials) could turn out to be a false trail, with no North Korean troops actually present on the front lines at all.
Their rumored deployment near Sudzha could mark a turning point, after which more verifiable information might emerge. This could finally confirm that the Russian army has been bolstered by thousands of North Korean special forces — perhaps through the capture of North Korean soldiers by Ukrainian forces or official acknowledgment from Russia’s Defense Ministry. For Ukraine’s Armed Forces, this would likely signal new challenges in maintaining their positions in the Kursk region.
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