- A North Korean soldier was captured by Ukraine, per South Korean intelligence.
- The soldier later died from his injuries, the National Intelligence Service said.
- It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was trying to hide North Korean losses.
A North Korean soldier captured by Ukrainian forces has died from his injuries, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said on Friday, per Yonhap news agency.
The NIS had earlier confirmed reports that an injured North Korean soldier had been taken prisoner by Ukraine.
“Through real-time information sharing with a friendly nation’s intelligence organization, (we) confirmed the capture of a wounded North Korean soldier and plans to thoroughly examine the subsequent development,” the NIS said in a statement.
The incident marked the first reported case of a North Korean combatant being taken alive during the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The soldier was reportedly seized on December 26 in Russia’s Kursk region, into which Ukraine launched an offensive in August.
It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Russia was trying to “conceal losses” of North Korean troops fighting against Ukraine.
“After first combats with our warriors, Russians are trying… to literally burn the faces of North Korean soldiers killed in battle,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, sharing a video seemingly showing the alleged act.
“There is not a single reason for North Koreans to fight and die for Putin. And even after they do, Russia has only humiliation for them,” he continued. “This madness must be stopped—stoped by a reliable and durable peace, as well as Russia’s accountability for this cynical war.”
Even after years of war, when we thought the Russians could not get any more cynical, we see something even worse.Russia not only sends the North Korean troops to storm Ukrainian positions, but also tries to conceal losses of these people.They tried to hide the presence of… pic.twitter.com/KYyGF1rxP8
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 16, 2024
Pyongyang reportedly began sending troops to Russia in October, with up to 11,000 thought to have arrived in Kursk so far.
North Korea’s elite “Storm” Corps have reportedly been at the forefront of the fighting in the region.
The NIS said more than 100 “Storm” troops had been killed and 1,000 more injured in their first battles for Russia.
The agency reportedly told lawmakers earlier this month that the elite troops — thought to be Pyongyang’s best-trained and most heavily indoctrinated — are ill-prepared for drone attacks and the local terrain.
Zelenskyy said in December that preliminary estimates suggested over 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in Russia’s Kursk region.
