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North Korean lawmakers have said that about 600 of its soldiers have been killed fighting in Russia’s war in Ukraine, citing intelligence officials.
Lee Seong-kweun and Kim Byung-kee disclosed this while speaking to reporters after a closed-door briefing by the National Intelligence Service, NIS, on Wednesday.
According to them, an estimated 4,700 North Koreans have been killed or injured so far in the war.
Their comments come two days after Pyongyang admitted, for the first time, that it had sent troops to Russia to support Moscow’s war.
In a report by the official Korean Central News Agency, KCNA, on Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was quoted as saying he had ordered the deployment of troops to “annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces.”
Lee and Kim, who are members of the conservative People Power Party and the liberal Democratic Party, respectively, also told reporters that the NIS estimates Pyongyang has deployed around 15,000 soldiers in total.
The lawmakers also said that Pyongyang appears to have received technical assistance on spy satellites in return for its support, as well as drones, electronic warfare equipment, and SA-22 surface-to-air missiles.
“After six months of participation in the war, the North Korean military has become less inept, and its combat capability has significantly improved as it becomes accustomed to using new weapons such as drones,” Lee told reporters.
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