Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that several wounded North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces have died, and the North Korean soldiers sent by Russia to fight had little ‘safety’.
According to the foreign news agency ‘AFP’, Ukraine and its Western allies say that North Korea has sent thousands of its soldiers to support the Russian army during the war that has been going on since 2022.
The Ukrainian president said that there have been reports of the death of several North Korean soldiers, and that our soldiers were able to take them prisoner,
Vladimir Zelensky said in a message posted on social media that ‘they were seriously injured and could not be kept alive’.
South Korea’s spy agency said on Friday that a North Korean soldier captured while fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine has died of his wounds.
President Zelensky did not specify how many North Korean soldiers have died since being captured by Ukrainian troops.
Zelensky had previously said that about 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded so far, as they fight alongside Russian forces in their western Kursk border region, where Ukraine launched a surprise attack in August.
South Korea’s intelligence service had previously put the number of North Koreans killed or wounded at 1,000, saying the higher death toll could be due to the battlefield environment and a lack of ability to counter drone strikes.
The White House confirmed South Korea’s estimates on Friday, saying that Pyongyang’s soldiers were being killed in futile attacks by generals.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters that we also have reports that North Korean soldiers are taking their own lives rather than surrendering to Ukrainian forces.
North Korea and Russia have strengthened their military ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A historic defense treaty between Pyongyang and Moscow signed in June took effect this month, and Russian President Vladimir Putin called it an “important document.”
North Korean state media said Putin had sent a New Year’s message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying that bilateral relations between the two countries had improved since talks in Pyongyang in June.
Seoul’s military believes that North Korea, Russia and Ukraine are trying to modernize their conventional warfare capabilities using combat experience gained in the war.
NATO chief Mark Rutte also said Moscow was providing support for Pyongyang’s missile and nuclear programs in exchange for troops.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said Pyongyang was reportedly preparing a troop rotation or additional deployment and was supplying the Russian military with 240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery.
Seoul had issued a warning over Pyongyang’s involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said in November that Seoul was not ruling out the possibility of supplying weapons to Kiev, which would mark a major shift in a long-standing policy that would ban arms sales to countries involved in active conflicts.
