North Korean forces taking heavy casualties in Russia and may send more

In the Two Minute Drill, Corey Stutte shares his insights on some of the day's most important geopolitical issues. On today's agenda: how is it going for North Korean forces in Russia? And, is North Korea's involvement a true escalation? The excerpts below are taken from the podcast.

How is it going for North Korean forces in Russia?

Well, it just so happens that the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff came out and gave a figure of 1,100 North Korean soldiers being killed or wounded in Kursk, Russia, or Ukraine.

And that's a fairly high number of soldiers that we think are deployed there. So far, we believe about 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the theater. So that's a rather significant depletion rate for them. And that should be concerning. What's even more interesting now is that the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff also have come out and said that they think that there might be a rotation or further deployment of North Korean troops into Russia and eventually to help with the war against Ukraine.

Those numbers continue to go up, and they are also expecting more rocket launchers and self-propelled artillery shells to go along with any sort of replenishment there. So, North Korea continues to be involved in the fight between Russia and Ukraine. And that's certainly something that we need to pay attention to.

Is North Korea's involvement a true escalation of the conflict?

I think the simple answer is yes. Vladimir Putin is trying to broaden the conflict and bring in a third country to join the fight. He sees this as an opportunity to remove itself and distance itself from any negotiations. Now, there are some softening of stances, both by Putin and Zelensky, when it comes to possible upcoming negotiations to come to some end to the war there. But this is something that we're going to need to pay attention to, North Korea's involvement, as well as the resupply and replenishment of their artillery and rocket stocks.