A North Korean soldier captured while fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine has died of wounds, South Korea’s spy agency said Friday.
Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russia’s military, including in the Kursk border area, where Ukraine made a sudden border incursion in August.
One of those North Korean soldiers was captured alive by Ukrainian forces on Thursday, a South Korean intelligence source told AFP, adding that the location where he was captured was not known.
A few hours later, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said the soldier died of his wounds.
“It has been confirmed through a partner intelligence agency that a North Korean soldier captured alive on Dec. 26 has died of severe wounds,” the South’s spy agency said in a statement.
Friday’s confirmation came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said about 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded” so far as they engaged Russian troops in the war.
South Korea’s intelligence service previously put the number of North Koreans killed or wounded at 1,000 and said the high casualty rate may be due to an unfamiliar battlefield environment and their lack of ability to counter drone attacks.
Lawmaker Lee Seong-kwan, speaking last week after a briefing by South Korea’s spy agency, said Pyongyang’s troops “are being used as expendable front-line assault units.”
‘Dangerous expansion’
North Korea and Russia have strengthened their military ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A landmark defense accord signed in June between Pyongyang and Moscow came into force this month, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling it a “breakthrough document.”
North Korean state media said Friday that Putin sent a New Year’s message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying “bilateral relations between our two countries have grown since our talks in Pyongyang in June.”
Ukraine’s allies have called Pyongyang’s increased involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine a “dangerous escalation” of the conflict.
Seoul’s military believes that North Korea wanted to modernize its conventional warfare capabilities through combat experience gained in the Russia–Ukraine War.
NATO chief Mark Rutte also said Moscow was providing support to Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs in exchange for troops.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on Monday that Pyongyang is reportedly “preparing for troop rotation or additional deployment” and that the Russian military will receive “240 mm rocket launchers and 170 mm self-propelled artillery”. Is supplying.
Seoul warned because of Pyongyang’s involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is currently suspended, said in November that Seoul was “not ruling out the possibility of providing weapons” to Ukraine, breaking a long-standing embargo on arms sales to active countries. There will be a major change in the policy that has been going on since. Confrontation.