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A North Korean soldier has been captured by Ukraine, according to South Korean intelligence.
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The soldier later died of his injuries, the National Intelligence Service said.
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It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was trying to hide North Korea’s losses.
A North Korean soldier captured by Ukrainian forces has died of his wounds, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said on Friday, according to Yonhap news agency.
The NOS had previously confirmed reports that an injured North Korean soldier had been captured by Ukraine.
“By sharing real-time information with the intelligence organization of a friendly nation, we have confirmed the capture of an injured North Korean soldier and intend to thoroughly investigate the subsequent development,” NOS said in a statement.
The incident was the first reported case of a North Korean fighter being captured alive during the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The soldier was reportedly captured on December 26 in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine launched an offensive in August.
It comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Russia was trying to “hide the losses” of North Korean troops fighting Ukraine.
“After the first battles with our warriors, the Russians… are trying to literally burn the faces of North Korean soldiers who died in the battle,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, sharing a video apparently showing the alleged act.
“There is no reason for North Koreans to fight and die for Putin. And even if they do, Russia will have nothing but humiliation for them,” he continued. “This madness must be stopped – stopped by a reliable and lasting peace, as well as by Russia’s responsibility for this cynical war.”
Pyongyang reportedly began sending troops to Russia in October, with around 11,000 said to have arrived in Kursk so far.
North Korea’s elite ‘Storm’ Corps has reportedly been at the forefront of fighting in the region.
The NIS said more than 100 ‘Storm’ troops had been killed and another 1,000 wounded in their first battles for Russia.
The agency reportedly told lawmakers earlier this month that elite forces — believed to be Pyongyang’s best-trained and most heavily indoctrinated forces — are ill-prepared for drone strikes and local terrain.
Zelenskyy said in December that preliminary estimates suggested more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in Russia’s Kursk region.
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