North Korean soldier captured in Ukraine war dies: South Korea’s spy agency | Russia-Ukraine war News

Intelligence report comes days after Ukraine’s president mentioned practically 3,000 North Korean troopers have been ‘killed or wounded’ in fight.

A North Korean soldier, who was combating for Russia, has died in Ukrainian captivity attributable to extreme wounds, in response to South Korea’s spy company.

The announcement by the Nationwide Intelligence Service in Seoul got here on Friday, hours after the Yonhap information company cited the company as confirming for the primary time that Ukrainian forces had captured a North Korean soldier.

The report mentioned he was alive, although the placement the place he was seized was not identified.

Pyongyang has deployed hundreds of troops to bolster Russia’s navy, particularly to the Kursk border area the place Ukraine mounted a shock border incursion in August.

Affirmation of the soldier’s dying got here days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed that almost 3,000 North Korean troopers had been “killed or wounded” as far as they joined Russian troops in fight.

It marked the primary vital estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties a number of weeks after Kyiv introduced that North Korea had despatched 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to assist it within the virtually three-year warfare.

Ukraine’s navy intelligence, identified underneath its acronym GUR, mentioned heavy casualties had been inflicted on North Korean models by Ukrainian strikes close to Novoivanovka in Kursk, provide points and even shortages of ingesting water.

In remarks to reporters on Friday, White Home spokesperson John Kirby mentioned the US additionally believes that North Korean forces are experiencing heavy casualties within the warfare between Russia and Ukraine.

He mentioned 1,000 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded within the final week alone within the Kursk area.

“It’s clear that Russian and North Korean navy leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults towards Ukrainian defenses,” Kirby mentioned, describing the North Korean troops’ offensive as “massed, dismounted assaults”.

Strengthened ties

North Korea and Russia have strengthened their navy ties since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

A landmark defence pact between Pyongyang and Moscow signed in June got here into power this month, with Russian President Vladimir Putin hailing it as a “breakthrough doc”.

Ukraine’s allies have referred to as Pyongyang’s rising involvement in Russia’s warfare in Ukraine a “harmful growth” of the battle.

South Korean politician Lee Seong-kweun mentioned final week that Pyongyang’s troopers had been being “utilised as expendable front-line assault models”.