South Korean TV said that since the Russian president's visit to North Korea, North Korea will send combat engineers to the front line in Ukraine, which will depart as soon as July, and at least four engineering brigades will be dispatched to enter the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield.
As soon as the news came out, there was an uproar.
First of all, although North Korea and South Korea have a border ceasefire line dispute, and small frictions are intermittent, a major war has not happened, and North Korea has not fought for decades. The point is that although the Russian-Ukrainian war is not a high-tech war, it is also a local modern war. Can North Korea's conventional artillery and rockets win in Ukraine alone?
Second, whether it can withstand heavy casualties on the battlefield. The Russian-Ukrainian battlefield actually used modern weapons to fight a war on the scale of "World War I", and Ukrainian armed personnel suffered heavy casualties. Russia and Ukraine basically engaged in hand-to-hand combat in one village and one position, replacing the crowd charge and close-range assassination of the "First World War" with the current drone combat and full coverage of precision missiles, thermobaric bombs, white phosphorus bombs, etc., and found that the combat target can basically achieve group annihilation. Will North Korean combat sappers be able to withstand the bombardment of Ukrainian drones and Western-aided tactical missiles?
North Korea currently has 10 combat engineer brigades, each with 5,000 people, and if 4 engineer brigades are sent, a total of 20,000 people will enter the Ukrainian battlefield. They are mainly in the Ddonetsk theater of operations in Ukraine, building various military defense facilities for the Russian army, especially building pillboxes on the flanks and longitudinal areas of the Russian defense line. Railways and military warehouses will also be built for the Russian army.
But this is already the front line of the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield, and when the North Korean engineer brigade enters here, it will also be attacked by Ukrainian indiscriminate artillery, drones and rocket artillery, and heavy casualties are inevitable.
In order to reduce heavy casualties, North Korean sappers have four major hurdles to overcome.
If the four major difficulties can be survived, how many people go out, maybe there will not be many attritions when they come back.
First, the logistics of the North Korean sappers must be guaranteed.
With 20,000 troops entering the front line in Ukraine, it is certainly unrealistic for the logistics to be provided by the DPRK itself, which requires the Russian logistics department to vigorously guarantee and provide the same food and protective treatment as the Russian army without discrimination. In addition to food supplies, there are body armor, air defense support, etc. Although the North Korean soldiers are brave in battle, but the living conditions in the country are not good, basically carbohydrate food, meat is rare, into the Ukrainian battlefield, under the Russian logistics support system, the life of North Korean engineers will be greatly improved, at least every day can enjoy the same supplies as Russian soldiers, such as beef, canned food, butter, bread, coffee, etc., life is good, combat effectiveness will naturally be greatly improved.
Second, North Korean engineers must guard against drone attacks.
In the Russian-Ukrainian war, more than 90% of the casualties of Russian troops were caused by Ukrainian drones. The drone can be said to have changed the rules of the battlefield, it is more powerful than the indiscriminate bombardment of artillery, and it can be eliminated at a fixed point and wiped out by a group at a fixed point. It's flying around in the air, and you can't even see where he is? Suddenly, it drops a bomb and explodes right next to you, so to speak, being targeted by a drone, and there is no escape. North Korean sappers are buried in repairing fortifications on the front line in Ukraine, and if they don't pay attention to the drones in the sky, there is a high probability of heavy casualties. Russia must provide a variety of advanced electronic equipment to detect and jam Ukrainian drones and ensure the safety of North Korean sapper construction. Don't let the North Korean sappers sweat and bleed while repairing the fortifications.
Third, we should strictly guard against saturation strikes by Ukrainian hippocampus, missiles and artillery.
The terrain of Ukraine and North Korea is different, North Korea is mainly mountainous, which is convenient for concealment and camouflage, while Ukraine is mainly plain, with open fields and sparse trees, and targets can be easily found dozens of kilometers away. The North Korean sappers are digging under the noses of the Ukrainian soldiers, it is very difficult to hide, and it is easy to be discovered by the Ukrainian soldiers, and the implementation of tactical missiles, artillery and Seahorse rockets is fully covered, and the hope of the North Korean sappers to survive on the plains is very slim. This necessitated digging down the fortifications and doing a good job of camouflage, concealment, evacuation and air defense to reduce the heavy casualties caused by the bombing.
Fourth, North Korean sappers should do a good job of electronic jamming.
Ukraine's weapons are mainly provided by Western countries led by the United States, and all kinds of advanced weapons and electronic equipment are naturally indispensable, especially to guard against drones and reconnaissance satellites in the sky. With the strong support of the Russian military, the Russian military provides electronic jamming equipment, mainly to do a good job in anti-electronic jamming and anti-drone combat capabilities, and to do a good job in site camouflage, such as arranging air barriers, setting up false targets, decoying and striking drones, and preventing satellites of the United States and other Western countries in the sky.
South Korea is very worried that North Korea will send engineering troops to participate in the Russian-Ukrainian war, they are not worried about what will happen to the loss of North Korean engineers, they are worried that in the first war between Russia and Ukraine, North Korea will learn a lot of actual combat experience, and it is learned from the European battlefield.