South Korea’s spy agency said Friday it has confirmed that a North Korean soldier sent to support Russia’s war against Ukraine has been captured by Ukrainian forces.
Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russian forces, including in the Kursk border area, where Ukraine made a sudden border incursion in August.
“Through sharing real-time information with an ally country’s intelligence agency, it has been confirmed that a wounded North Korean soldier has been captured,” South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said in a statement.
An intelligence source told AFP that the soldier had been captured by Ukrainian forces, adding that the location where he was captured was unknown.
The first confirmation of the capture of a North Korean soldier came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that about 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded.”
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff also said Monday that more than 1,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded.
The JCS also said that Pyongyang is reportedly “preparing troop rotation or additional deployment” and supplying “240 mm rocket launchers and 170 mm self-propelled artillery” to the Russian military.
Seoul’s military believes that North Korea wanted to modernize its conventional warfare capabilities through combat experience gained in the Russia–Ukraine War.
North Korean state media said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a New Year’s message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying “bilateral relations between our two countries grew after our talks in Pyongyang in June Are.”
A landmark defense agreement came into force in December after the two sides exchanged ratification documents.
Putin praised the deal in June as a “successful document”.