N. Korea secretly delivers casualty notices to families

“The authorities gave me a casualty notice for my younger brother, who served in a North Korean special forces unit deployed to Russia. They emphasized not to speak about this to anyone, and made us place a fingerprint on the document.”

The U.S.-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on Monday that North Korean authorities had delivered casualty notices for soldiers deployed to Russia to their families, while instructing them not to disclose the information. “After signing the ‘non-disclosure agreement,’ they returned home sobbing over the loss of their loved one,” RFA said, citing a family member from South Pyongan Province.

“On December 18, I received a notification from the party committee in Kaechon City to attend a provincial-level event. I went to Pyongsong (the capital of South Pyongan Province) with my mother and received my brother’s casualty notice,” a North Korean source stated. “At the event hosted by the provincial party committee, an official explained that my brother ‘died while participating in sacred combat training, upholding the honor of the nation.’”

Around 10 bereaved family members reportedly attended the casualty notice delivery event, most of whom were relatives of soldiers from the Storm Corps, a North Korean special forces unit, deployed to Ukraine. RFA explained that these families receive preferential supplies and favorable treatment in state-led projects. Following the official confirmation by South Korean and U.S. authorities in October last year that North Korean troops were deployed to the fierce battlegrounds in Kursk, information about North Korean casualties began to surface via Ukrainian forces or local social media and was later corroborated within North Korea.

North Korean troops deployed to the Ukrainian war appear to be fighting under poor conditions. On Friday, Mykhailo Makaruk, a sergeant in Ukraine’s 8th Special Operations Regiment, told RFA that he had recovered the bodies of North Korean soldiers killed in Kursk. He reported that most of the rifles used by North Korean soldiers were outdated Kalashnikov (AK-47) rifles and that there was a noticeable lack of modern equipment such as radios. He described their combat knives as impractical, likening them to small daggers, and claimed their weaponry was inadequate. Regarding their grenades, he added that they weren’t F-1 or Soviet-style grenades but completely dysfunctional RGO defensive grenades, which are heavier than offensive ones. However, RFA noted that Makaruk did not provide documents or photographs to substantiate his claims, so the authenticity of his statements could not be verified.

The number of North Korean troops deployed to Russia is estimated at over 12,000, with casualties steadily rising. According to Voice of America (VOA), Sabrina Singh, U.S. Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary, stated during an online briefing on Monday that about 1,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or injured in the Kursk region, adding that North Korean offensives in Kursk are not proving to be particularly effective, with significant casualties reported.


Eun-A Cho achim@donga.com