North Korean soldiers captured by the Ukrainian military died from injuries sustained on the battlefield, according to Ukrainian officials.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced at a Friday press conference that multiple soldiers from the Korean People’s Army, or KPA, were captured in the Kursk region but said the wounded combatants had died of their injuries.
“Today there were reports about several soldiers from North Korea. Our soldiers managed to take them prisoner. But they were very seriously wounded and could not be resuscitated,” Zelensky said.
He continued, “Everything is being done to make it impossible for us to capture Koreans. The Russians send them on assaults so that they have minimal protection.”
If accurate, this report would mark the first instance of a KPA soldier being taken prisoner since North Korea entered the conflict.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service confirmed at least one North Korean prisoner was taken in the Russia-Ukraine conflict with a brief statement.
“Through real-time information sharing with a friendly nation’s intelligence organization, [NIS] confirmed the capture of a wounded North Korean soldier and plans to thoroughly examine the subsequent development,” the NIS said, according to a translation from Yonhap News Agency.
No images of the captured soldier have been released, but further information on the individual is highly anticipated by international observers who have received scant concrete materials related to North Korea’s role.
North Korea is believed to have ordered approximately 11,000 members of its KPA to be deployed to the Kursk region of Russia to aid in the invasion of Ukraine.
Neither North Korean leader Kim Jong Un nor Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed the KPA deployments, but Russian state media writers have celebrated their entry into the conflict as a triumph of international comradery.
Satellite images and South Korean intelligence previously confirmed the presence of these soldiers, but Ukraine has failed until now to capture a North Korean national fighting alongside the Russian military.
Thus far, soldiers of the KPA have been largely confined to roles away from the front lines, serving as guards and patrolmen within already-conquered territory.
This may have changed over the last few weeks, as the United States and Ukraine have confirmed a sharp uptick in North Korean combatants.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said this week that approximately 1,000 KPA soldiers have been killed or wounded in the last week of combat.
“I hope they’re loading up their commanders with a bunch of body bags because they’re clearly going to need it,” he claimed.
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Zelensky claims North Korea has suffered approximately 3,000 casualties since entering the Kursk region.
Information about North Korea’s operations in Russia and Ukraine has been a source of confusion and conflicting reports from government agencies, leading to much speculation.
