North Korean Columns Ambushed In Kursk Again, As Casualties Climb Above 3,000

North Korean forces in Kursk oblast continue to suffer extraordinary casualty rates. This is largely due to their tactical preference for mass attacks, but Ukrainian troops are also finding that the North Koreans are unlikely to surrender, even when cut off and wounded, necessitating their elimination. 

While the North Koreans' numbers have been useful for Russia, they have not made a significant strategic or even tactical impact because of their inexperience and wasteful battle discipline. JL

Koh Ewe in the BBC and Euromaidan Press report:

North Korean forces tried to deploy fresh troops to attack in Kursk. A huge column of North Korean soldiers made their way through forests, trusting that the trees would obscure them. But the North Koreans concentrated along a narrow corridor, allowing Ukrainians to eliminate the threat with HIMARS cluster bombs. After the majority of North Korean soldiers were wiped out by artillery Ukrainian special forces finished off any soldier unwilling to surrender. More than 3,000 North Korean troops have died or been wounded while fighting in the Kursk region. North Korean soldiers have been issued with fake Russian IDs, even as Russian troops burned the faces of slain North Koreans to conceal their identities.

Euromaidan Press: Here, in Kursk oblast, in defense of their objective, Ukrainians devised a clever plan to turn the tables on the battlefield, using the North Korean numbers advantage against them. As cluster bombs and artillery rained down upon the North Koreans, Ukrainians sent in special forces operators to clear the area of any survivors and take prisoners; but as North Koreans were not willing to surrender, it led to a series of brutal confrontations.

A screenshot from the Reporting from Ukraine video, 25 September

The Main Ukrainian goal is to defend Kruglenkoe, to prevent North Koreans from using the capture of the settlement to penetrate further toward Malaya Loknya, a key settlement holding together the Ukrainian defense of the entire northern part of the Kursk salient. 

It is important to note that the main value of Kruglenkoe is not the size of the village, as less than fifty people would’ve lived here before the war. Instead, the main value of Kruglenkoe is the forests surrounding the settlement and, most importantly, the basements of the houses here, which allows for the concealed gathering of forces and ammunition, making it a launching pad for further infiltration assaults through the forests on Malaya Loknya.  

A screenshot from the Reporting from Ukraine video, 25 September

As North Koreans had already established a foothold in the forests during the initial stages of their assault, pushing them back out was not a viable option for Ukrainians as the North Koreans vastly outnumbered them. 

This meant that to achieve their goal of stopping the North Korean breakthrough to Malaya Loknya, Ukrainians had to conceive a clever plan to turn the North Korean reliance on their numbers advantage into a weakness. The plan was simple, force North Koreans into tactically disadvantageous positions, undermine their combat capabilities, and conduct counterattacks to eliminate the remaining forces and gather reconnaissance.

As you remember from a previous report, Ukrainians already completed the first phase of the operation, conducting a tactical withdrawal from the narrow forests leading to Kruglenkoe. As North Koreans were initially spread out across the bigger forest to the west, North Koreans were now forced to concentrate their forests along a narrow corridor, allowing Ukrainians to eliminate the threat most effectively with HIMARS cluster bombs. 

Newly released footage shows how the North Korean forces tried to deploy fresh troops to the forests to try and attack the village nonetheless. The footage shows a huge column of North Korean soldiers making their way through the forest, trusting that the trees would obscure them. 

Unfortunately for North Koreans, Ukrainians were heavily monitoring the area with drones, as their heat signatures were highly visible in contrast to the snowy and cold underground. Ukrainian artillerymen immediately opened fire on the bunched-up North Koreans, decimating the entire assault group with a mix of conventional artillery and cluster rounds. 

After the large majority of North Korean soldiers were wiped out by artillery, Ukrainians sent in special forces operators to conduct raids on the North Korean positions and clear the area, preventing them from gradually building up a sizeable assault force from the remnants of failed attacks. The Ukrainian special forces tactfully moved through the forest, clearing dugouts with grenades and finishing off any soldier unwilling to surrender. 

A screenshot from the Reporting from Ukraine video, 25 September

As it turns out, reports from Ukrainian soldiers who have fought against the North Koreans report that their enemy often refuses to surrender, even in cases where they have no other way out. One soldier comments on how they were forced to shoot a North Korean who was faking a surrender, as he tried to pull the pin on a grenade on them once they came close to take him captive. 

Overall, Ukrainians have conceived a plan to deal with the new North Korean threat most effectively, turning the North Korean reliance on overwhelming attacks through their superiority in numbers, into a stark disadvantage. By putting North Korean forces in a tactically disadvantageous position and destroying their forces accumulations in bulk, Ukrainians managed to break the forward momentum of their attacks, and launch a series of successful counterattacks. 

As North Koreans actively continue to funnel more troops into the forests, it is expected that Ukrainians will need to rinse and repeat their operation, till they have either completely drained the North Koreans of their reserves, or have forced the North Koreans to pull back for reorganization, creating a win-win scenario in both cases.

 

BBC An injured North Korean soldier captured by Ukrainian forces has died, Yonhap News Agency has reported, citing a statement from South Korea's spy agency.

The soldier is believed to be the first North Korean prisoner of war captured since Pyongyang deployed forces to support Russia's war in Ukraine.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service said it had confirmed through an "allied intelligence agency" that the soldier had died from "serious injuries", Yonhap reported.

North Korea has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to help Russia, according to Kyiv and Seoul - though Moscow and Pyongyang have neither confirmed nor denied their presence.

 

The spy agency earlier confirmed that Ukrainian forces had captured the soldier after a photo purporting to show the man had been circulating on Telegram.

"This is the first in a string of captures and killings," Yang Uk, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies, told the BBC. "For Ukrainians, it's more beneficial to capture these North Korean troops and try to exchange them with Russians for Ukrainian prisoners of war."

Recent images emerging from the Russia-Ukraine war confirmed speculations that "North Korean troops will be deployed in large numbers to the assault by Russian command", Mr Yang said.

He also added, however, that "it will be challenging to prove their North Korean nationality".

Ukrainian forces say that North Korean soldiers have been issued with fake Russian IDs, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted footage last week which he said showed Russian troops burning the faces of slain North Koreans to conceal their identities.

Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence services have said that many of the troops deployed to Russia are some of Pyongyang's best, drawn from the 11th Corps, also known as the Storm Corps. The unit is trained in infiltration, infrastructure sabotage and assassinations.

More than 3,000 North Korean troops have died or been wounded while fighting in Russia's Kursk region, Zelensky said Monday.

He added that the collaboration between Moscow and Pyongyang heightened the "risk of destabilisation" around the Korean peninsula.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The recent deployment of North Korean troops to Russia is a sign of a growing alliance between the two pariah states.

The development, which comes as North Korea ratchets up tensions with South Korea, has sparked worries in the West. China, a long-standing ally of both sides, is also keeping a cautious eye on the friendship.