Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday January 11 the capture of two North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia in Kursk. An assertion confirmed by South Korean intelligence (NIS).
South Korean intelligence confirmed on Sunday January 12, 2025 that Ukraine had captured two North Korean soldiers in the Russian region of Kursk, and said it was participating in their interrogation alongside Ukrainian services.
Ukraine, the United States and South Korea have accused nuclear-armed Pyongyang of sending more than 10,000 troops to help Russian forces.
Captured Thursday by special forces and paratroopers
In a statement, Ukrainian intelligence (SBU) said that one of the soldiers was captured on Thursday January 9 by special forces, and the second by paratroopers.
“The National Intelligence Service (NIS), through real-time cooperation with the Intelligence Agency of Ukraine (SBU) […] confirmed that the Ukrainian army captured two North Korean soldiers on January 9 on the battlefield of Kursk, Russia,” the NIS said in a statement.
The SBU released a video on Saturday January 11, 2025 showing the two men in hospital bunks with bandages, one on his hands and the other on his jaw. A doctor at the detention center said the first man also had a broken leg.
Our soldiers have captured North Korean military personnel in the Kursk region. Two soldiers, though wounded, survived and were transported to Kyiv, where they are now communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine.
This was not an easy task: Russian forces and other North… pic.twitter.com/5J0hqbarP6
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Volodymyr Zelensky (@ZelenskyyUa) https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1878046090018042169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Volodymyr Zelensky promises that prisoners will receive “all necessary medical assistance.” He claimed to have ordered the SBU to provide press access to detainees.
South Korean intelligence statements support the information released by kyiv, while neither Russia nor North Korea reacted. Neither country has so far confirmed the presence of North Korean soldiers on the Ukrainian front.
The AFP was unable to independently verify the nationality of the prisoners.
“Deprived of food and water for four to five days before being captured”
The NIS said one of the captured soldiers revealed during interrogation that he had received military training from Russian forces after arriving in November. “He initially thought he was being sent for training, then realized upon arrival in Russia that he had been deployed” to the front, the NIS said.
The soldier said North Korean forces had suffered “significant losses during the fighting,” according to the source.
Seoul’s intelligence agency said one of the men was “deprived of food and water for four to five days before being captured.”
According to the SBU, the prisoners speak neither English nor Russian, and discussions are conducted in Korean with interpreters in cooperation with the South Korean service.
One of the soldiers was presented by the SBU as carrying, at the time of his capture, Russian military papers with the name of another person living in the republic of Tuva, in Siberia.
Questioned on Saturday January 12 on this point, the press service of the Ukrainian presidency assured that Moscow was distributing false documents to North Korean fighters to conceal their identity.
Military training in Russia
South Korea’s intelligence service said one of the captured soldiers revealed during interrogation that he had received military training from Russian forces after arriving in November.
According to the SBU, the other soldier had no documents on him. He would be a sniper born in 1999, in the army since 2016.
The NIS said it would continue to work with the SBU to share information on North Korean fighters in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky indicated on Saturday January 11 that the soldiers, although injured, had been able to be transferred to kyiv for questioning.
“The Russians and other North Korean soldiers finish off their wounded”
“It was not an easy task: usually the Russians and other North Korean soldiers finish off their wounded and do everything to erase evidence of the participation of another state, North Korea, in the war against ‘Ukraine,” he continued.
At the end of December, the Ukrainian president had already announced that two seriously injured North Korean soldiers had been captured in the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukrainian forces have occupied several hundred km2 since August 2024. But the soldiers had succumbed to their injuries.
