North Korean General becomes first high-ranking military official injured in Ukraine, says report

A high-ranking North Korean General was reportedly injured in a recent Ukrainian strike in Russia’s Kursk region, Western officials said yesterday.

This is the first casualty of a senior North Korean military officer in the escalating Russia-Ukraine conflict, The Wall Street Journal reported, quoting officials. Ukraine launched at least 10 British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles into Kursk on Wednesday, according to Ukrainian and Western officials.

It is not immediately clear how the senior North Korean officer was wounded and the report did not include details about his identity. According to a WSJ source, the attack may have targeted a command post used by Russian and North Korean forces in Maryino.

The WSJ reported that North Korean Col Gen Kim Yong Bok, the deputy chief of the Korean military’s general staff, was reportedly in Russia to coordinate his country’s troops with the Russian forces.

The North Korean General is known as one of ten most prominent military leaders of the Korean country and a frequent aide to Kim Jong-un.

North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine will become “fair game and fair targets for the Ukrainians”, John Kirby, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, had said last month after the troubling intelligence confirmed Pyongyang was sending its troops to fight in the war.

“If they do deploy to fight against Ukraine, they are fair game,” Mr Kirby said. “They are fair targets and the Ukrainian military will defend themselves against North Korean soldiers the same way they’re defending themselves against Russian soldiers,” he said.

The US concerns of North Korean participation in a conflict in Europe were amplified by defence secretary Lloyd Austin shortly after.

“If they are co-belligerents – if their intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf – that is a very, very serious issue. It will have impacts, not only in Europe. It will also impact things in the Indo-Pacific as well,” he said.

North Korea, which has one of the largest standing armies in the world with 1.2 million soldiers, has emerged as a key ally of Russia, especially since Kim Jong-un visited Russia last year and Vladimir Putin reciprocated by travelling to Pyongyang this year.

Mr Kim and Mr Putin signed a mutual defence treaty pledging to provide immediate military assistance if either country is attacked.

This comes as a top South Korean official on Friday said that Russia has supplied air defence missiles to North Korea in exchange for sending its thousands of troops to back Mr Putin’s war efforts against Ukraine.

South Korea has found Russia provided missiles and other equipment to reinforce its air defence network for Pyongyang, said Shin Wonsik, national security advisor for president Yoon Suk Yeol said on Friday.