The intelligence report comes days after Ukraine’s president said nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers were “killed or wounded” in combat.
A North Korean soldier fighting for Russia has died from serious injuries in Ukrainian captivity, according to the South Korean spy service.
The announcement by the National Intelligence Service in Seoul came on Friday, hours after Yonhap News Agency first cited the agency as confirming the capture of a North Korean soldier by Ukrainian forces. The report said he was alive, but the location where he was arrested was not known.
Pyongyang has intervened Thousands of troops to reinforce the Russian military, particularly in the Kursk border region, where Ukraine launched a shock attack on the border in August.
Confirmation of the soldier’s death came a few days after the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers were “killed or wounded” when they joined Russian troops in combat.
It was Ukraine’s first significant estimate of North Korean casualties, several weeks after Kiev announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to support it in the nearly three-year war.
Ukrainian military intelligence, known by the acronym GUR, said North Korean units suffered heavy losses due to Ukrainian attacks near Novoivanovka in Kursk, supply problems and even drinking water shortages.
Strengthened bonds
North Korea and Russia have strengthened their military ties since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
A landmark defense pact between Pyongyang and Moscow signed in June came into effect this month, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling it a “groundbreaking document.”
Ukraine’s allies have described Pyongyang’s increasing involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “dangerous expansion” of the conflict.
South Korean politician Lee Seong-kweun said last week that Pyongyang’s soldiers were being “used as expendable front-line attack units.”
