Eight Russian soldiers were killed by North Korean forces in a recent “friendly fire” incident in Kursk, according to Ukrainian intelligence.
North Korean soldiers opened fire on Russian military vehicles, Defense Intelligence of Ukraine said on Saturday, attributing it to a language barrier between the two forces.
It didn’t say when the incident took place, but added that language barriers continue to be a “difficult obstacle” for Russian and North Korean personnel, per The Kyiv Independent’s translation.
Business Insider could not independently verify the report.
North Korea has sent thousands of troops to aid Russia in its fight against Ukraine, officials from South Korea, Ukraine, and the US have said.
Dmytro Ponomarenko, Ukraine’s ambassador to South Korea, told Voice of America last month that the number could reach 15,000, with troops rotated out every two to three months. He said a cumulative 100,000 North Korean soldiers could serve in Russia within a year.
Experts on the relationship between the two states have previously said that the language difference between North Korean and Russian soldiers would be a key logistical issue.
Joseph S. Bermudez Jr., an expert in North Korean defense at the Center for International and Strategic Studies, told BI that though the two countries have historical ties, they rarely learn each other’s language.
“To conduct combat operations with an allied force that doesn’t speak your language presents real problems,” he said.
North Korean soldiers have been sent to aid Russian forces in Kursk, an area of Russia that was partially occupied by Ukraine in August.
The North Korean soldiers are reported to have been scattered across various Russian units and had already come under Ukrainian fire as of early November.
Audio intercepted by Defense Intelligence of Ukraine in October suggested a chaotic start to the Russia-North Korea partnership, not least because of language difficulties.
In the intercepted audio, a Russian soldier complained about leaders having “no fucking clue” what to do with the new troops and remarked that they had been allocated one interpreter per 30 soldiers.
The soldiers reportedly killed in the friendly fire incident were from the Ahmat battalion, Ukrainian intelligence said — a group under the control of Chechen warlord and Putin loyalist Ramzan Kadyrov.
“Kadyorovites,” as they are known, have been fighting in Kursk since August, according to reports.
Ukraine initially seized a large swathe of Kursk in its surprise cross-border raid — around 500 square miles — but Russian forces have retaken about 40% of that land, a senior Ukrainian military source told Reuters in late November.
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