Terrified North Korean soldier stares down Ukrainian drone after being sent to die in icy trenches 4,000 miles from home

THIS is the heart-stopping image of a North Korean soldier staring down the lens of a Ukrainian drone after being drafted in to fight for Russia.

The man is 4,000 miles from home in an unfamiliar landscape, fighting for an army he cannot understand.

The striking photograph is the first of a North Korean soldier fighting for Russia where the face can be properly made out, after a number of videos emerged showing evidence of Kim Jong-Un's men on the front line.

The soldier looks terrified as he levels a lost stare into the camera of a drone hovering nearby in the Kursk region of Russia, currently occupied by Ukraine.

He is lying on the snow-covered ground amongst woodland and leafless branches, wrapped in a thick green uniform to protect against the cold.

The man's age is unknown, but his face appears young in the image.

Kim Jong-Un sent a group of North Korean Storm Corps to fight alongside the army of Putin, his fellow warmongering dictator, as first reported by Kyiv in October.

Kyiv estimates that around 11,000 DPRK soldiers have been shipped to eastern Europe to fight, though the Kremlin has not commented on the reports.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said last night: “Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. 

“A significant number of them.”

The Ukrainian intelligence services also confirmed today that “at least 30 [North Korean] soldiers were killed and wounded” in clashes over the weekend.

Drone footage released by various Ukrainian military sources today identifies active soldiers in the Kursk region that are claimed to be North Korean.

Another drone-shot video shows a long line of bodies that, it is claimed, contains the dead North Korean and Russian soldiers stacked together.

A spokesperson for the Khorne Group said: “The long awaited North Koreans.

“Weakness and bravery are their tactics, their trump card is good fitness.”

Zelensky said that, currently, it seems North Korean soldiers are active “only” in the Kursk region.

This is the area of Russia taken by Ukraine in a surprise offensive in August. 

The operation was intended to divert Moscow’s forces, but it has since been criticised from some within Ukraine for stretching its forces too thinly across the front line.

Hyun-Seung Lee, who was a soldier in the DPRK army in the early 2000s, told The Sun last month that the dispatched soldiers will be young and sent forcibly.

He also said they will be very inexperienced and unready for frontline action, suggesting Putin is planning to exploit them as “human shields” and cannon fodder.

For these reasons, Lee said he expects a significant number of the North Korean soldiers to "flee" the Russian army.

He said: "It will be individuals at first, but as time passes, I think there'll be a larger number of group defections, including officers."

That’s because the Russians will likely treat them as “expendable”, Lee said.

“Russian soldiers don’t respect them as their fellow warriors.

“They will treat them as their human shields.”