North Korean troops ‘withdrawn’ from Kursk front line
‘We have not seen or detected any activity or military clashes with the North Koreans.’
‘We have not seen or detected any activity or military clashes with the North Koreans.’
KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukraine believes North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russia’s army on the Kursk front line have been “withdrawn” after suffering heavy losses, a military spokesman told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Friday.
Russia again refused to comment on claims foreign troops were fighting alongside their own soldiers. Instead, it accused Ukrainian soldiers in Kursk of committing atrocities.
Western, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence agencies say Pyongyang deployed more than 10,000 troops to support Russian forces fighting in its western Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a shock cross-border offensive in August.
Kyiv captured dozens of border settlements in the operation — the first time a foreign army had crossed into Russian territory since the Second World War — in an embarrassing setback for the Kremlin.
The North Korean deployment, never officially confirmed by Moscow or Pyongyang, was supposed to reinforce Russia’s army and help them expel Ukraine’s troops.
Nearly six months on, however, Ukraine still holds swathes of Russian territory, something President Volodymyr Zelensky sees as a key bargaining chip in any future negotiations with Moscow.
“Over the past three weeks, we have not seen or detected any activity or military clashes with the North Koreans,” Oleksandr Kindratenko, spokesperson for the Special Operations Forces, told AFP.
“We believe that they have been withdrawn because of the heavy losses that were inflicted,” he added.
Ukraine previously said it had captured or killed several North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region.
Zelensky has published footage of interrogations with what he said were North Korean prisoners captured by his army on the Kursk front.
Ukrainian officials have said wounded North Korean troops were blowing themselves up with grenades rather than being taken alive.
