By Song Sang-ho
WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 (Yonhap) -- A U.S. expert said Tuesday that up to 50 percent of North Korean troops, who were deployed to support Russia in its war against Ukraine, might be injured or killed on the battlefield, as Moscow is conducting "attrition" warfare that involves "heavy casualties."
Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), made the remarks amid reports that North Korea has suffered substantial troop casualties after deploying around 12,000 North Korean troops to Russia's front-line Kursk region.
"The casualty rates were significant. By most accounts, we were able to take a look at somewhere between a third and probably on the real high-end, maybe 50 percent casualties among the North Korean forces," Jones said during a CSIS podcast.
"Again, hard to know exactly what reality is ... with as many as 1,000 killed. ... Those are pretty staggering casualties for a force of 11 (or) 12,000," he added.
Jones said that Russia is waging "attrition" warfare operations that use human waves in pursuit of progress on the battlefield.
"Their way of retaking territory is to conduct attrition warfare and to take casualties and to accept those casualties," he said.
That is the way Russia has utilized North Korean forces, he said, noting that from Russian President Vladimir Putin's perspective, political costs are not strong given that most Russian troops sent to the battlefields are not from elite families.
"Much of his conventional force of individuals (are) from Siberia, Central Asia, from prison units, not the sons of elites from St. Petersburg or Moscow," he said.
Citing conversations with Ukrainian forces, Jones said that North Korea soldiers, deployed to Russia, were "fierce fighters" who were willing to "fight and die," but somewhat disorganized.
"The cohesion between North Korean and Russian forces, including command and control, was apparently poor. There were language barriers," he said.
This week, South Korea's National Intelligence Service confirmed a report from The New York Times that North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia have been pulled from the front lines in mid-January due to heavy casualties.
sshluck@yna.co.kr
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