North Korean troops deployed to Russia appear to be concealing their identities by using forged identification cards with Russian names. 

According to the Ukrainian media outlet RBC on Sunday, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces(SOF) disclosed photos of military documents in a Facebook post, claiming that they killed three North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region and seized their documents. 

The SOF said decrypted data revealed the real names of the dead North Koreans to be Ban Gook-jin, Lee Dae-hyuk, and Cho Chul-ho, but their Russian documents showed their names were Kim Kahn Solat Albertovich, Dongnk Jan Suropovich, and Beljek Aganak Kap-oolovic.

According to the SOF, these military ID cards lacked all the required stamps and photos and the place of birth is signed as the Republic of Tuva, the homeland of former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, raising doubt about the authenticity of the cards.

The Ukrainian military said a major giveaway that the IDs were forged was the fact that the document holders' signatures were written in Korean, indicating the real origin of the soldiers. 

The SOF said that this case once again confirms that Russia is resorting to any method to hide its losses on the battlefield, as well as to conceal the presence of foreign troops.