The North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia in Kursk against Ukraine are taking serious casualties due to their little to no experience of flatland battlegrounds, Seoul claims. Having trained in the mountainous North Korean terrains, these soldiers are easy prey to modern drone warfare and guerilla tactics of Ukrainian defenders who have been at war for a long time now, reports point out.
The language barrier is not helping them either and the Russian officers have decided to leave them at fate's hand instead of risking their own by using them in combined operations. The North Korean soldiers are getting minimal training before being sent to take on the enemy, and at least 1,000 of them have died within one month of their arrival. Ukraine claims to have killed or injured no less than 3,000 North Korean soldiers already, a claim hard to verify. However, as things stand, it is safe to say the arrival of North Koreans has not given Russia any notable dividends yet and lack of battleground experience has cost Kim Jong Un's men dearly on an alien territory.
#Operation #Kursk
— Boris Alexander Beissner (@boris_beissner) December 15, 2024
The bodies of Russian and North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region. pic.twitter.com/oqxwF20qqt
Interestingly, it is not regular North Korean soldiers who landed in Russia to support Vladimir Putin's invasion. They belong to the Storm Corps, an elite group of North Korean fighters, who are among the best Kim has to offer. While most North Korean troops are malnourished and starved for most of the year, the Storm Corps serve under better circumstances. Although underpaid like the rest of the country's military units, they serve under better circumstances and get better supplies and clothing. North Korean families consider it a privilege if one of its youths is recruited to the Storm Corps, and now, they have become the first unit in the post-war history of the country to join a battlefield outside the national borders.
An image doing rounds on Telegram claiming to be that of a North Korean PoW in Ukraine, who later died | X
Why did Kim choose the Storm Corps to honour his "war agreement" with Putin? Why are these highly motivated soldiers labelled "tough" and "no pushovers " by many North Korean defectors? Here is what we can gather about the Corps from the limited information available on the hermit kingdom.
Understanding the North Korean military hierarchy
The Korean People's Army General Staff is responsible for the military management of the service branches of the Korean People's Army (KPA).
The KPA Ground Corps generally consists of:
- Four forward deployed (or “warfighting”) corps: the I Army Corps, II Army Corps, IV Army Corps and IV Army Corps
- Four rear area corps (or “round-out force”): the III Army Corps, the VII Army Corps, the IX Army Corps and the recently-established X Corps
- DPRK’s main SOF unit, the XI Army Corps (a.k.a. the “Storm Corps”)
- Four mechanized corps: two of these are forward deployed, the 806th Mechanized Corps and the 815th Mechanized Corps; and, two are follow-on units, the 108th Mechanized Corps and the 425th Mechanized Corps
- The 105th Tank Corps and the 820th Armored Corps
- The 620th Artillery Corps; and,
- The Pyongyang Defense Command
As mentioned above, the General Staff Operations Bureau’s (GSOB) 5th Department is responsible for the operations of the KPA’s Special Operations Forces [SOF] and light infantry who comprise the XI Corps, or Storm Corps.
Who are the North Korean Army's Storm Corps?
Formally the 11th Corps, the Storm Corps is based in Dokchon County of DPRK's South Pyongan Province. Considered to be among the country's elite troops, its main missions would be infiltrating agents into South Korea, blowing up important facilities in the South and assassinating key figures in the event of war on the Korean Peninsula.
The KPA XI (11th) Corps is the successor of the Light Infantry Training Guidance Bureau and is trusted with leading special operations warfare in case of an armed conflict along with the Reconnaissance General Bureau.
However, the roots of the Corps are traced back to the Special 8th Corps, which was established in 1969. It became the Light Infantry Training Guidance Bureau only in 1983 by integrating other special forces.
An image that went viral on X claiming to be that of a North Korean soldier killed in Kursk | X
History buffs may remember these predecessors of the Storm Corps for carrying out the Blue House raid in 1968 -- a failed cross-border commando operation to assassinate the then-President of South Korea Park Chung Hee. Kim Jong-il, son of Kim Il Sung and father of Kim Jong Un, made it a habit to visit the unit's headquarters in Tokchon at least once a year.
How large is Pyongyang's "elite" Storm Corps?
South Korean military intelligence estimates the Storm Corps to be 40,000 to 80,000 strong. They claim it consists of 10 brigades, which include a light infantry regiment known as “Lightning,” an airborne infantry brigade called “Thunder,” and a commando brigade dubbed “Bolt.” Its air unit is equipped with low-altitude AN-2 aircraft to infiltrate and carry out tactical operations.
Special operations commanders associated with the Storm Corps are thus counted among the most important military leaders reporting to Kim.
What do we know so far about 11th Corps activities?
A screengrab from a video released by Ukraine that showed a North Korean soldier seconds before being killed by one of its attack drones | X
Ahead of their deployment in Kursk, the last the world heard about Pyongyang's Storm Corps was during the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kim Jong-un reportedly deployed a large number of Storm Corps along with the Seventh Corps to DPRK's borders with China to prohibit cross-border movements.
The isolated North Korea had reasons to be more scared of the virus than the rest of the world. There were reports of the dictatorial regime ordering the execution of people suspected of having shown symptoms of coronavirus. The Storm Corps were tasked with gunning down civilians who tried to cross over to China or return as part of a 2020 “shoot-to-kill” order in buffer zones. This was Pyongtang's strategy to prevent transmission of COVID-19 into the country which began vaccination in June 2022.
The Storm Corps had fatally shot a North Korean civilian found attempting to return to Hoeryong of North Hamgyong Province, after visiting a relative in China, a US Department of State report said.
The same year, they were also sent to the country's northern Ryanggang province to "target corruption and smuggling" from China. As many as 1,500 members of the Corps were deployed along Ryanggang's Hyesan alone, rfa.org had said. Law enforcement agencies and border guards in the region were asked to report to the Corps and every military unit along the border was assigned with troops between 150 and 300. The report added that they were also keeping a vigil to prevent North Korean citizens from trying to flee to China to escape the hardships of the pandemic restrictions.
Kim Jong-un | Reuters
Reports claim that Human rights groups have said Storm Corps have been used by Kim Jong Un "to crack down on popular dissent in North Korea." However, there is no known data on them taking on an armed foe ever ahead of their arrival in Russia's contested territory, explaining their disastrous campaign against Volodymyr Zelenskyy's troops.
