Is the Kursk operation still worth the cost?

Gruesome images of dead North Korean soldiers sprawled in the mud and snow have flooded military Telegram channels this week. Pyongyang’s troops joined the battle for Russia’s Kursk region, but so far haven’t been able to evade the Ukrainian drones. South Korean intelligence claimed that at least 100 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 1,000 wounded this month as Vladimir Putin races to strip Volodymyr Zelensky of his only bargaining chip before Donald Trump takes office in the US next month.

Since November, Russia has deployed around 12,000 North Korean troops to reclaim the Kursk region from Ukrainians. The language barrier and difficulties with integration into Russian military ranks have caused delays in getting them battle-ready. Ukrainian soldiers say the North Koreans have been an easy target for the drones as they lack experience in modern warfare and just ‘stand there trying to shoot the drones down instead of hiding’.