A crude drawing showing stickmen figures shooting a drone features on one page.

The last written notes of a North Korean soldier have revealed how Pyongyang’s troops are being used as “bait” to lure out and shoot down Ukrainian drones.

The diary of the dead man, published by Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, described the reckless tactic along with expressions of love for Kim Jong-un and a “longing” to return to his homeland.

On one notebook page, a crude drawing shows a stickman soldier breaking cover to attract the attention of a drone, while his two comrades lie in wait to shoot it down.

“When the bait stands still, the drone will stop and it will be shot down,” the soldier wrote in scrawled handwriting, translated by The Wall Street Journal.

The drone-trapping instructions detailed how the “human bait” should stand within seven metres of the Ukrainian drone, which will then be “neutralised with precision shooting”.

Military observers and Ukrainian commanders have said that North Korean soldiers have not been trained in modern warfare and are being used as cannon fodder by their Russian allies.

They are often sent out across open fields in large groups, without armoured vehicles or artillery back-up, to test Ukrainian defences, with smaller groups of Russian special forces following behind.

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Some 4,000 North Koreans have died or been injured since last month, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, said on Thursday.

US officials estimate that more than 1,000 of Pyongyang’s troops died in the last week of December alone.

The diary, which was found on Dec 21 and has been authenticated by experts, was written by a young soldier who died in a firefight alongside two compatriots, Ukraine’s special forces said.

It was published a day after Mr Zelensky said that Ukrainian forces had captured two North Korean soldiers.

Ukrainian intelligence released videos of the two men, one with a bandage wrapped around his head and the other with bandages covering his hands.

They were transported to Kyiv for questioning and have reportedly told Ukrainian intelligence services that they thought they were being sent to Russia for training, not to fight in the war.

Mr Zelensky on Sunday offered them up to Pyongyang in exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war held in Russia. He added that there would “undoubtedly be more” of its soldiers captured by Kyiv in future.

Many of the thousands of North Korean conscripts sent to Russia in October were teenagers who had never left the Communist state, and this youthfulness comes through in the dead soldier’s diary.

It detailed how the author was homesick for his parents and how he had celebrated his best friend’s birthday.

“Longing for my homeland, having left the warm embrace of my dear father and mother, here on Russian land I celebrate the birthday of my closest comrade Song Ji Myong,” he wrote.

The diary also hinted at the fanaticism and devotion to Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s dictator, that was driving the conscripts.

“Even at the cost of my life, I will carry out the supreme commander’s orders without hesitation,” its author wrote.

Kim sent around 12,000 conscripts to help Russian forces expel Ukrainian soldiers from Kursk under a “mutual military assistance” deal signed with Vladimir Putin last June.

In return for the conscripts, and supplies of missiles and artillery shells, Putin is understood to be sending sanction-busting fuel to North Korea and helping Kim launch spy satellites.

 

In the Kursk region, Russian military bloggers said the country’s forces had repelled a Ukrainian counter-offensive launched last week and were now seizing ground.

They said the Kremlin’s troops were attempting to push the remaining Ukrainian military units from the region before Donald Trump is sworn in as US president on Jan 20, amid expectation he may then look to impose a peace deal.

Rybar, which has 1.2 million subscribers on the Telegram messaging app, said Russian forces had “advanced in heavy bloody battles on the northern edge” of territory in Kursk held by Ukraine since August and were “breaking through to Sudzha along the shortest route”.

Ukraine’s troops in the region are concentrated around the main town of Sudzha.

Analysts believe Mr Zelensky ordered the counter-offensive last week to hold on to the roughly 300 square miles Ukrainian troops still hold in an attempt to put pressure on Putin ahead of potential peace talks.

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