A Russian military unit sustained serious casualties after reportedly coming under “friendly fire” from North Korean soldiers.
Pyongyang is believed to have sent 12,000 troops to Russia, as the Kremlin looks to beef up its frontline troops fighting against Ukraine.
Ukrainian intelligence claims that some 3,000 have already been deployed to the Kursk front, where Russia is trying to regain territory it lost in August.
Ukrainian forces recently captured a Russian soldier who fled his unit after it allegedly came under accidental fire from North Koreans.
In a video posted to social media channels by Ukraine’s military intelligence, the dishevelled Russian said: “They brought in 10 Koreans and sent us to the forest to dig trenches.
“They give all the warm clothing and food to Koreans. During the assault, the Koreans started firing at us.
“We tried to explain where to aim, but I think they shot two of our own. I decided it was better to surrender in this situation than to be killed by our own bullet.”
Ukraine is trying to persuade North Korean soldiers to surrender and hand in their weapons in a new campaign.
Last week, the Ukrainian military intelligence project “I Want to Live” released a Korean video on YouTube and published a message on Telegram.
The messages urge North Korean soldiers to surrender, saying they should not “die senselessly in a foreign land.”
They offered to provide them with food, shelter, and medical services.
The head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, told Voice of America that “additional videos with the participation of North Koreans will be published in the future.”
Meanwhile, South Korea’s intelligence service has revealed some of the terms of the agreement signed between Putin and Kim Jong-un.
In return for its soldiers, Pyongyang is receiving a yearly supply of 600-700 tonnes of rice, a salary of US $2,000 for each North Korean soldier deployed in Ukraine, which could generate over US $200 million annually, and advanced space technology.
Wi Sung-lac, a former South Korean ambassador to Russia, said the financial and food crises in North Korea are largely being alleviated by the Kremlin’s compensation.