Fearful North Korean troops are reportedly going AWOL from training camps in Russia. However, their families could be punished if they disgrace Kim Jong Un.
North Korean soldiers preparing to join Russia's front line in Ukraine are beginning to grasp the terror ahead.
Several young conscripts have attempted to flee a training camp in Khabarovsk in Russia's Far East, according to South Korean sources. They may have discovered that Vladimir Putin's "special military operation" - which Kim Jong Un has ordered them to support - is a bloody affair.
According to NATO and Western military officials, an average of around 1,200 Russian soldiers are killed or wounded in the Ukraine war every day.
A contingent of 2,600 North Korean soldiers is due to be transferred to the battlefront in Kursk by the end of October, according to Ukrainian intelligence. They have been issued Russian uniforms and weapons. Furthermore, their country of origin has been disguised through fake identity documents.
Russian commanders hope that members of the foreign battalion will blend in with troops from Siberia. Soldiers from Siberia, they say, have similar facial features to Koreans.
