About one-thousand North Koreans have reportedly been killed fighting against Ukraine in Russia’s western Kursk region. 

Quoting Western officials, the BBC reported on Wednesday that out of the estimated eleven-thousand troops dispatched from North Korea, about one-thousand were believed to have been killed as of mid-January.

The officials reportedly said North Korea has suffered nearly 40 percent casualties, or about four-thousand casualties, referring to all those killed, wounded, missing or captured. 

On January 9, the Ukrainian president said during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany that the North Korean forces had suffered four-thousand casualties. 

On Monday last week, South Korea’s spy agency said North Korea had suffered three-thousand casualties, including 300 deaths. 

BBC said these losses, if confirmed, are unsustainable by the North Koreans.