At least 100 North Korean soldiers sent to Russia to fight against Ukraine have been killed, and more than 1,000 wounded, according to the National Intelligence Service in Seoul.

Rep. Lee Seong-kweun, the ruling People Power Party's deputy chair of the National Assembly's Intelligence Committee, told reporters Thursday that among some 11,000 North Korean soldiers believed to have been deployed in Kursk near Russia’s border with Ukraine, “at least 100 have been killed, and more than 1,000 injured.”

Lee had been briefed the same day by Cho Tae-yong, the NIS director, regarding North Korean casualties in the war in Ukraine.

“Russia and Ukraine are engaged in a fierce offensive ahead of the anticipated end-of-war negotiations when Trump’s second administration takes office,” Lee said. “Kursk in particular is a fierce battleground in the final stages of Russia's efforts to retake the territory.”

In a briefing last month, the NIS had said that the dispatched North Korean soldiers were mostly stationed in Kursk.

According to Lee, the NIS said the high casualties were attributed to North Korean soldiers being used for frontline assaults and their unfamiliarity with modern warfare tactics such as drone strikes.

“The Russian military has also complained that the North Korean troops lacked knowledge of drone strategies,” Lee said, citing the NIS.

The NIS also found that casualties so far included some of Pyongyang’s high-ranking military officials, the lawmaker said.

Lee said the NIS has spotted signs of North Korea preparing to send more of its special forces troops, to be compensated for by Russia with military technology transfers.

The NIS was mainly receiving its intelligence on North Korean troops in the war from the intelligence authorities of Ukraine and of allies including the US, the lawmaker explained.

Democratic Party of Korea lawmakers on the intelligence committee refused to attend Thursday’s briefing by the NIS director, whom the opposition party has accused of being complicit in President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law imposition.