North Korean troops are estimated to have suffered at least 3,000 casualties while fighting alongside Vladimir Putin’s troops, according to South Korea.
The Russian president struck up a mutual defence deal with Kim Jong Un in the summer whereby both of their countries would support the other if attacked by a third party.
Neither side has admitted it, but it is widely believed North Korean soldiers were sent to the Russian region of Kursk after Ukraine’s retaliatory incursion began there in the summer.
North Korean troops were reportedly deployed to the conflict in November.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) claimed on Monday that 300 soldiers had already been killed and 2,700 others wounded fighting Ukraine’s troops in Kursk.
The intelligence officials told South Korean lawmakers in a closed-door meeting that these “massive casualties” came down to the troops’ “lack of understanding of modern warfare”.
As reported by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, the intelligence service believes Kim’s troops are “useless” at trying to shoot down long-range drones.
Pyongyang also reportedly encouraged troops to kill themselves to avoid being taken alive as prisoners of war by Ukraine.
But Kyiv captured two soldiers in Kursk over the weekend who are thought to be North Korean – and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is willing to swap those troops with Ukrainian captives in Russia.
According to the South Korean intelligence service, families of the troops now working for Putin fear they are “slave soldiers” and “cannon fodder”.
It comes as the Russian president is pushing his own troops forward at an unprecedented speed on the Ukrainian frontline to try and seize as much land as possible before Donald Trump takes over the White House on January 20.
The incoming president has promised to resolve the conflict on his first day in office, but has not said how he would do so, sparking fears he would push Kyiv to cede land to Moscow.
Trump’s incoming national security adviser Mike Waltz told ABC over the weekend: “Everybody knows that this has to end somehow diplomatically.
“I just don’t think it’s realistic to say we’re going to expel every Russian from every inch of Ukrainian soil, even Crimea.
“President Trump has acknowledged that reality, and I think it’s been a huge step forward that the entire world is acknowledging that reality.
“Now let’s move forward.”
While this was previously a red line for Ukraine, president Zelenskyy told the French newspaper Le Parisien in December: “We cannot give up our territories. The Ukrainian constitution forbids us to do so.
“De facto, these territories are now controlled by the Russians. We do not have the strength to recover them.
“We can only count on diplomatic pressure from the international community to force Putin to sit down at the negotiating table.”
Waltz also told the media that he is anticipating setting a meeting between Putin and Trump in the near future.
He said: “I do expect a call for, at least in the coming days and weeks. So, that would be a step and we’ll take it from there.”