North Korean “Storm” elite troops face heavy losses in Ukraine as drone warfare exposes training gaps

Over 11,000 North Korean soldiers, part of an elite special forces unit, are reportedly fighting on Russia’s side, but they are suffering heavy losses due to their lack of preparedness for the battlefield conditions of the Russian-Ukrainian war, The New York Times reports.

According to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, the troops deployed by North Korea to Russia’s Kursk Oblast belong to the “Storm” special operations corps. These soldiers are among North Korea’s most highly trained and indoctrinated troops. However, they were poorly prepared to counter drone attacks and to operate in unfamiliar terrain far from their isolated homeland.

North Korea’s special forces are primarily trained for precise “sniper” missions, such as urban combat and infiltration via sea, air, or the mountains of the Korean Peninsula. They lack sufficient training for trench warfare on flat, open terrain of the Russia-Ukraine front line, noted Doo Jin-ho, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul.

Additionally, during the two years of the pandemic, when North Korea was shut down, many of its special forces were reassigned to strengthen border security with China. According to the expert, this led to missing part of their scheduled training.

“From top to bottom, the North Korean military has had no live combat experiences for decades. The troops must have had a crash course on drone and infantry warfare, but the question is how well they are familiarized with it,” said Ahn Chan-il, a former North Korean army sergeant.

South Korean intelligence officials added that North Korean soldiers in Kursk Oblast were sent into battle after learning only basic Russian military terms such as “open fire,” “artillery,” and “in position.” This minimal language training may have hindered effective coordination on the battlefield.

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