This photo was published by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. It shows one of the two men, presented as North Korean soldiers, captured at the front.
IMAGO/Newscom / EyePress
South Korean intelligence confirmed on Sunday that the Ukrainian army captured two North Korean soldiers on January 9 on the battlefield of Kursk, Russia, and said it was participating in their interrogation alongside the 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 on the Ukrainian front.
In a video released Saturday by Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the two men are seen in hospital bunks with bandages, one on his hands and the other on his jaw. A doctor at the detention center said one of them also had a broken leg. According to kyiv, the prisoners speak neither English nor Russian and discussions are conducted in Korean with interpreters in cooperation with the South Korean service.
Another image published on social networks by Volodymyr Zelensky shows that one of the two prisoners was injured in the jaw.
IMAGO/Newscom / EyePress
“Deployed on the front”, and not in training
This is the first time that the presence of North Korean soldiers on the Ukrainian front seems proven, although neither Russia nor North Korea have so far confirmed this information. Even if the AFP indicates that it is not able to independently verify the nationality of the prisoners.
This capture above all made it possible to realize that the North Korean soldiers had no idea of what awaited them. One of the prisoners indicated during his interrogation that he had received military training from Russian forces upon his arrival 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 South Korean intelligence service said.
The soldier also reportedly said that North Korean forces had suffered “significant losses during the fighting,” according to this source.
Lucky to be alive
Seoul’s intelligence agency said one of the men was “deprived of food and water for four to five days before being captured.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that the soldiers, although injured, had been able to be transferred to kyiv for questioning.
“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 North Korea’s participation in the war against Ukraine,” he said. 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 square kilometers since August 2024. But the soldiers had succumbed to their injuries.
Escalation in conflict
The alleged involvement of a foreign army constituted a major escalation in the invasion of Ukraine launched almost three years ago by Vladimir Putin.
During a visit to Seoul in early January, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that, in Washington’s view, Russia was expanding its space cooperation with North Korea in exchange for contributions from its troops in the fight against Ukraine.
The general staff of the South Korean forces has also observed preparations which make it believe that North Korea is preparing to dispatch new units to Russia, to reinforce or to relieve those already fighting, in addition to drones.
A historic mutual defense treaty between Pyongyang and Moscow, signed in June, recently entered into force. It provides for “immediate military aid” in the event of armed aggression by a third country.
North Korea is considered a major arms supplier to Russia for its conflict in Ukraine.
(afp)
