Seoul confirms that Ukraine has captured two North Korean soldiers

2025-01-12 13:00:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

South Korea confirmed on Sunday that Ukraine had captured two North Korean soldiers, a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian security authorities were interrogating the two fighters captured in Russia's Kursk region.

"Through real-time cooperation with Ukraine's intelligence agency... [South Korea's National Intelligence Service] has confirmed that the Ukrainian military captured two North Korean soldiers on January 9 at the Kursk battlefield in Russia," Seoul said in a statement. .

On Saturday, Zelensky said Ukrainian investigators are questioning two North Korean soldiers who were captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region.

Zelensky also posted on Telegram pictures of the soldiers he says have been captured. He did not provide evidence that they were North Korean, but South Korea's statement lends more credence to the claim.

The Intelligence Service of Ukraine (SBU) released a video on Saturday showing two men in hospital beds, one with bandaged hands and the other with a bandaged jaw.

Ukrainian officials said the prisoners were speaking through translators working with South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS).

The SBU said one of the detainees, who said he was born in 2005, claimed he believed he was "going for training, not to fight in the war against Ukraine".

The other man was forced to write down his answers because of an injury to his jaw, the SBU said. This soldier said he was born in 1999 and is a sniper in the North Korean Army.

The NIS also said one of the captured soldiers said he had been trained by the Russian military after arriving in the country in November.

"He initially believed he was being sent for training, but realized after arriving in Russia that he had been sent to war," South Korea's intelligence agency said.

She added that one of the prisoners "went without food or water for about four or five days before he was captured" by Ukrainian forces.

They were captured days after Ukraine launched a new offensive in Kursk to prevent Russia from recapturing lost territory. The Ukrainian army launched a lightning and surprise offensive in August 2024, capturing large parts of the Kursk region. This was the largest incursion on Russian soil since World War II.

Last fall, North Korea sent about 11,000 troops to the Kursk region to support Russian forces there. Moscow has recaptured about 40 percent of the territory, but Ukrainian troops still control more than 500 square kilometers in Kursk, and North Korean troops are reportedly suffering heavy losses.

Zelensky said on December 23 that more than 3,000 troops, or about a quarter of North Korean special forces sent to Russia, have been killed or wounded, although he did not provide evidence.

White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on December 27 that North Korean forces were suffering heavy losses on the front lines, adding that about 1,000 of their troops had been killed or wounded in the Kursk region during a one-week period./REL