ISW Analysts Predict Expansion of North Korean Military Operations by the AFU Over the Next 12 Weeks

According to the latest information from ISW, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are capable of eliminating the North Korean military contingent located in the Kursk region on the Russian side by mid-April of this year, reports NewsBox.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has indicated that the deployment of troops from North Korea, engaged in fighting on the Russian side in the Kursk region, could be entirely annihilated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) by mid-April.

According to intelligence from South Korea and Pentagon sources, in October, North Korea sent between 10,000 to 12,000 soldiers to the Kursk region. By November, they had reportedly engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces for the first time. According to estimates from South Korean intelligence, as of January of this year, around 300 North Korean soldiers had been killed, and an additional 2,700 had been injured.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asserts that these figures are even higher — in total, 3,800 military personnel have been killed or injured. According to the ISW assessments, on the day of the military grouping, casualties could have reached up to 92 individuals, placing its survival at risk in the coming 12 weeks.

South Korean intelligence links these significant losses to the insufficient training of KPA soldiers and their "inadequacies in modern warfare tactics.

It has also been reported that North Korean soldiers are under orders to commit suicide to avoid capture. However, on January 11, Zelensky announced that Ukrainian forces had captured several North Korean soldiers. According to him, these captured soldiers are typically Russians or their allies trying to retrieve their wounded to conceal the involvement of other countries, including North Korea, in the war against Ukraine.