**Translation:**
**”Thinking they won’t be seen if they lie down, they recklessly charge forward.
‘Easily targeted as they approach foolishly like zombies.’
50 dead and 47 wounded in three days of battle in Kursk.”**
[Seoul=Newsis] A photo taken by a drone showing North Korean soldiers deployed in the Kursk region of Russia. (Source: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s X account. Republished by RFA) *No resale or database use permitted*,
[Seoul=Newsis] Reporter Kang Young-jin reports that the Ukrainian 8th Special Operations Regiment, stationed in the Kursk region of Russia, released drone footage on the 17th (local time) claiming to have killed 50 North Korean soldiers during a battle, according to Radio Free Asia (RFA).
The footage shows individuals presumed to be North Korean soldiers either running away or hiding behind trees upon encountering Ukrainian FPV (first-person view) drones.
The 8th Special Operations Regiment stated that during the three-day battle, about 50 North Korean soldiers were killed and 47 wounded, and that they destroyed two armored vehicles and two other vehicles.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Ukrainian military’s Chief Commander, also stated in an online address on the 17th, “The enemy has been conducting intensive offensive operations in the Kursk region for three days, actively utilizing North Korean forces.”
Mikhailo Makaruk, a sergeant of the 8th Special Operations Regiment, said, “About 200 people were approaching our base. They moved around where the drones were bombing, shooting at the FPV and approached our base like zombies. They were easy targets for us. They were truly reckless, like real zombies.”
Sergeant Makaruk reported that the North Korean soldiers participating in the battle moved together with the Russian army and included mid-level officers.
He added, “It was a typical Soviet infantry’s combat style from the 1950s and 60s. They seemed to think that if they laid on the ground or hid behind trees, we couldn’t see them. They didn’t understand that FPV is remotely controlled.”
FPV drones can reach speeds of up to 150 km/h, and it’s known that it takes less than a second to impact if they encounter someone within a 100m radius.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Anti-Disinformation Center under Ukraine’s National Security Council, stated on his Telegram that the deceased North Korean soldiers “did not understand the gravity of the drones” and suggested that “Russia seems not to have adequately informed the North Korean military about the drones.”
Kovalenko added that the Russian military is quickly recovering the bodies of the deceased North Korean soldiers, unlike those of Russian military casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also posted drone footage of the North Korean soldiers on X.