The South Korean information agency informed the legislators on Wednesday that some 4,700 North Korean soldiers were killed or injured while fighting Russia in the Moscow War against Ukraine.
The accusation occurs only two days after Pyongyang recognized for the first time to send combat forces to help Russia recover the Kursk region, which the country lost to a surprise Ukrainian incursion last year.
According to Lee Seong Kweun, one of the deputies who attended the meeting, the National Service of South Korea (NIS) told a parliamentary commission in the closed door that North Korea had suffered 4700 casualties, including 600, on battle fronts between Russia and Ukraine.
Lee said Nis declared that 2,000 North Korean soldiers were repatriated to North Korea by air or rail between January and March. Citing Nis, Lee emphasized that dead North Korean soldiers were cremated in Russia before their remains were sent to their country.
The last figures reveal a significant increase in the death toll compared to January, when it was estimated that some 300 North Korean soldiers had died and another 2,700 had been injured. Last month, the South Korean army increased to 4,000 the expected number of casualties.
According to Kim Byung-Kee, another South Korean legislator, around 15,000 North Korean workers were also sent to Russia under bilateral industrial cooperation programs.
On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong a recognized that Pyongyang had sent troops to “annihilate and eliminate Ukrainian neo -Nazis occupants and release the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian army.”
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, issued a statement thanking North Korea for his sacrifices.
To Aliança Putin-Kim Jong a
Last year, Kim and Putin signed a Historical Defense Treaty that stipulates that both parties should offer assistance in case of attack to the other. According to the two leaders, the North Korean detachment was held under this treaty.
The United States, South Korea and its partners say that North Korea has been providing large amounts of conventional weapons to replace Russian reserves.
They claim that North Korea sent 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers to Russia at the end of last year, and in March, another 3,000 soldiers were sent to Russia.
Sources of secret services say that Russia is providing military and economic assistance from North Korea in return.
However, during his informative session on Wednesday, South Korea said that he had found that Russia provided North Air Missile Korea, electronic war teams, drones and technology for the launch of spy satellites.
In August, the Ukrainian troops launched a surprise offensive in the Russian western region of Kursk, occupying almost 1,000 square kilometers of land, in which it was the largest raid in the Russian territory since World War II.
Last week, Moscow announced the conclusion of the “Kursk Liberation Operation”, stating that he had already expelled all Ukrainian forces in the region, a statement that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected.
ADVERTISINGOn Sunday, Zelenskyy said that the Ukrainian army was still fighting in the region.
