AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, File
THE BUSINESS INSIDER | Published December 25, 2024
More than 100 of North Korea’s best “Storm” troops have been killed and 1,000 more injured fighting alongside Russia in its invasion of Ukraine, South Korean intelligence said.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers on Thursday that the troops’ losses came in their first battles for Russia, The New York Times reported.
Lee Seong-kweun, a South Korean lawmaker, also told reporters that a general-ranking officer could be among the dead, the report said.
North Korean troops arrived in Russia in October. Ukraine said the following month that it attacked North Korean forces for the first time.
Since then, North Korean troop losses have mounted. On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that based on preliminary estimates, over 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in Russia’s Kursk region.
North Korean troops are primarily fighting in that region, where Ukraine launched an offensive in August.
North Korea’s Storm Corps are among the most well-trained in Pyongyang’s military, as well as the most indoctrinated, the Times reported.
Despite that elite status, they were still not ready for the fight in Ukraine, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said.
The agency told lawmakers that they were poorly prepared for drone attacks and the local terrain.
It’s not the first time reports have suggested North Korea’s forces are ill-prepared for the war.
The BBC reported that the Storm troops get more advanced training than other soldiers, but they’re still underfed and some appear malnourished.
Ukrainian officials and soldiers have also said that North Korean troops have been killed by drones that they did not realize were dangerous.
Ukrainian intelligence previously reported that North Korean troops accidentally killed eight Russian soldiers in Kursk, describing it as a “friendly fire” incident caused by a language barrier.
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SOURCE: www.businessinsider.com
RELATED: Zelensky — 3,000+ North Korean Troops Killed or Wounded
EA WORLVIEW | Published December 25, 2024
Map: Institute for the Study of War
UPDATE 1620 GMT:
At least nine civilians have been injured by a Russian attack on an apartment building in Kryvyi Rih in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.
Preliminary reports indicate the four-story building was struck by a ballistic missile.
Three residents — a 79-year-old man and women aged 69 and 72 — are in moderately severe condition in hospital.
UPDATE 1408 GMT:
Ukraine has received $1 billion from Japan and the UK through the World Bank’s Growth Foundations Development Policy Loan program.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal posted, “The funds raised will be used to strengthen our economy and finance priority expenditures in the social and humanitarian spheres.”
UPDATE 1403 GMT:
The Russian-installed head of occupied Berdyansk in southern Ukraine has been injured after his car exploded in a yard outside a house.
The cause has not been reported, and Vasyl Nechet’s condition is unknown.
Nechet contributed to the establishment of a pro-Russian regime in the city after Moscow’s invasion. He joined Vladimir Putin’s ruling United Russia party, and was appointed head of the occupation council.
UPDATE 1345 GMT:
Russian authorities are limiting access to YouTube and threatening to cut off WhatsApp.
YouTube’s traffic has been reduced to 20% of normal levels, since it was slowed by Russian regulators in the summer.
Senator Artem Sheykin said Monday of WhatsApp, “If the messenger fails to fulfill certain requirements and obligations, the probability of blocking may increase.”
Russia declared Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp, an “extremist organization” in 2022.
Last Friday, WhatsApp was added to the register of information distributors, which requires it to store user data and hand it over at the request of Russian law enforcement agencies.
Shirkin said, “The development of the situation with WhatsApp in Russia in 2025 will depend on the position of the messenger’s management on storing information about users and correspondence and providing it at the request of the [State security service] FSB.”
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