A tragic diary entry of a North Korean soldier deployed to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war has revealed how Pyongyang’s troops are being used as drone ‘bait’.
Published by Ukraine‘s Special Operations Forces, the dead man’s written notes described how North Korean soldiers are being used as cannon fodder in the brutal war.
On one notebook page, a pen drawing shows a stickman soldier breaking cover to attract the attention of a Ukrainian drone while two fellow soldiers hide in the background to shoot it down.
‘When the bait stands still, the drone will stop and it will be shot down,’ the soldier wrote beneath the image, translated by The Wall Street Journal.
The drone-tapping instructions also detailed how the ‘human bait’ should stand within seven metres of the drone, which will then be ‘neutralised with precision shooting’.
The diary, which was discovered on December 21 and has now been authenticated by experts, belonged to a young soldier who died in a firefight alongside two comrades, Ukraine’s Special Forces said.
It was released a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed his forces had captured two North Korean soldiers.
Another entry in the diary detailed how the young soldier was homesick for his parents and how he had celebrated his friend’s birthday.
On one notebook page, a pen drawing shows a stickman soldier breaking cover to attract the attention of a Ukrainian drone while two fellow soldiers hide in the background to shoot it down
The diary, which was discovered on December 21 has now been authenticated by experts
The North Korean soldiers have yet to learn how to use drones. Pictured above is a North Korean soldier who was filmed by a Ukrainian drone
‘Longing for my homeland, having left the warm embrace of my dear father and mother, here on Russian land I celebrate the birthday of my closest comrade Song Ji Myong,’ he wrote.
The diary also revealed a devotion to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
‘Even at the cost of my life, I will carry out the supreme commander’s orders without hesitation,’ the diary’s author wrote.
The US estimates that 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to fight for Russia – about 4,000 of whom have already been killed on the battlefield, according to Zelensky.
The soldiers are also being used as ‘human mine detectors’ according to Lieutenant Colonel ‘Leopard’ of Ukraine’s 33rd ‘Big Cats’ battalion, who revealed that their lives are worth little to their higher-ups.
‘The North Koreans have a “meat grinder” strategy. Where Ukrainians use a mine-clearing vehicle, they just use people,’ he told the Times.
‘They just walk in single file, three to four metres from each other, if one is blown up, then the medics go behind to pick up the dead, the crowd continues one after another. That’s how they pass through minefields.’
Leopard said that the soldiers sent by Kim Jong Un often refuse to be taken alive, preferring to be killed in battle or to simply run as their commanders stand by unfazed.
Drone footage taken last month shows the Russian meatgrinder tactic in action, with two dozen North Korean soldiers seen slowly jogging towards the Ukrainian front line in clusters across an open, snow-covered battlefield as part of ‘suicidal charges’.
The US estimates that 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to fight for Russia – about 4,000 of whom have already been killed on the battlefield
A macabre image is believed to include dead North Koreans killed fighting for Russia in Kursk region
North Korean soldiers’ faces revealed in first close-up videos as they fight for Putin in the Kursk region on the border with Ukraine
They didn’t try to seek cover, which was ‘like a dream for our mortars and machinegunners,’ Ukrainian veteran Vitaliy, 35, told the Times.
Vitaliy fought in the battle of Bakhmut, which saw waves of Russian murderers and rapists being sent to their deaths as apparent cannon fodder.
‘The Wagner group had a simple order: advance or die. It looked like exactly the same thing for the Koreans,’ he said.
Another dark clip showed a line of what were said to be the bodies of soldiers from Pyongyang lying in blood-covered snow alongside slain Russians after their troop was all but wiped out.
Ukrainian and South Korean officials say the North Koreans have proven a burden to Russian forces due to their outdated battlefield tactics, while inexperience with drone warfare makes them easy targets for Kyiv’s battle-hardened warriors.
But Leopard said that while North Korean soldiers aren’t anywhere near as heavily armed as their Russian counterparts, this will change the longer they are involved in the war.
‘North Koreans use only small arms, machineguns, grenade launchers, mortars, maximum – that’s the extent of their technology’, he said.
‘They do not use drones yet, only the Russians. But I suspect they are starting to learn this, and the longer the war drags on, the more likely they are to innovate’, he added.
A North Korean soldier is seen hiding from a Ukrainian drone
The Khorne Group – an organisation linked to Kyiv forces in the 116th separate mechanised brigade and 95th air assault brigade -, shared footage showing what appeared to be North Korean soldiers dumbfounded by a Ukrainian FPV drone above them
Ukraine’s special forces claimed to have killed 77 North Korean soldiers in three days
The first North Korean prisoner of war has been captured by the Ukrainian armed forces, confirmed South Korea’s National Intelligence Service on 27 December 2024
This comes after President Zelensky declared Russian troops were ‘burning the faces’ of dead North Korean servicemen to conceal their identities, sharing macabre images to illustrate his claim.
Citing a report by South Korea’s intelligence services, MP Lee Seong-kweun said yesterday: ‘In December, they (North Korean troops) engaged in actual combat, during which at least 100 fatalities occurred.
‘The National Intelligence Service also reported that the number of injured is expected to reach nearly 1,000.’
Despite those losses, the agency also said it had detected signs North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was preparing to train a new special operations force to ship westward.
Lee noted that the North’s elite Storm Corps – from which the initial deployment was drawn – had ‘the capacity to send reinforcements’.
The NIS also predicted ‘that Russia might offer reciprocal benefits’ for a new deployment, Lee said, including ‘modernising North Korea’s conventional weaponry’.