Ukrainian commander says North Korean soldiers charged his unit ‘like in a World War II movie’ during combat

North Korean soldiers march during a parade in Pyongyang in September 2018.

AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File

Ukrainian forces have fought against North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region.A Ukrainian commander described to BI what it was like to face them in combat.He said the North Koreans would charge forward like something out of a movie and were “cannon fodder.”

North Korean soldiers who fought in Russia lacked sufficient training for the war in which they were thrown into and were treated by the Russians as “cannon fodder,” a Ukrainian commander who went into battle against them told Business Insider.

Konoval Ihor Ihorovych, commander of the reserve group of the 4th Company of the 33rd Assault Regiment, said North Korean behavior in battle was at times confusing and reminiscent of past wars.

Around 11,000 North Korean troops were deployed to Russia’s western Kursk region last fall to help Moscow repel enemy forces and recapture territory that Ukraine had seized after it launched a stunning invasion there in August.

Ihorovych, call sign Sahara, joined an operation in early January to take Makhnovka, a settlement in Kursk. The goal was to secure key positions and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

A Ukrainian soldier looks through the scope of a rifle on September 11 in the Kursk region.

Oleg Palchyk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

He recalled how, at one point, his soldiers came across North Korean troops who were inexplicably running back and forth between buildings while getting pounded by artillery fire around 500 meters away from the Ukrainians.

Ihorovych said he wasn’t sure why the North Koreans were running. He speculated that they either didn’t know what to do or that there was no commander on the ground with them. Even Ukrainian soldiers in an adjacent unit were surprised by their strange behavior.

The war in Ukraine is a very different kind of conflict compared to what North Korean forces have trained for, and they are suspected to have received only limited training from the Russians.

“In combat, they would just charge forward from the tree line, like in a World War II movie,” Ihorovych recalled. Assaults during the Second World War were often high casualty. He said his troops killed a number of North Korean soldiers they saw running from their positions.

Ihorovych said his unit completed their operation without taking any losses, adding that the North Koreans are “cannon fodder.”

His description of their battle style falls in line with an assessment from the Biden administration, which said at the end of December that the North Koreans were using human wave tactics that weren’t very effective.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exchange documents during a signing ceremony of a new partnership in Pyongyang on June 19.

Kristina Kormilitsyna, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File

A White House spokesperson said at the time that Russian and North Korean military leaders viewed the troops as “expendable” and were sending them on “hopeless assaults” against Ukrainian defenses. Prior to their deployment to Russia, Pyongyang’s military had not experienced major combat operations in decades.

The Pentagon and Ukraine’s military leadership have described the North Koreans as well-disciplined, competent, and capable soldiers skilled in combat but who are new to modern warfare and unprepared for its challenges.

According to new Western intelligence assessments, Pyongyang is taking heavy losses — around 4,000 troops are estimated to have been killed or wounded fighting in Russia. Britain’s defense ministry said last month that the high rate of North Korean losses in such a short period of time is negatively affecting their ability to conduct combat operations in Kursk.

Conflict analysts at the Institute for the Study of War think tank warned in mid-January that if this trend continues, Pyongyang could lose all the troops it deployed in just a matter of weeks. North Korean forces, notably, haven’t been seen on the front lines in weeks, fueling speculation they were pulled back amid the heavy losses.

Russia and North Korea have strengthened their defense ties during the Ukraine war and signed a pact over the summer that pledged military assistance if one country is attacked. In addition to soldiers, Pyongyang has also sent Moscow artillery shells and missiles.