North Korean soldier captured by Ukrainian army dead, South Korean intelligence says

WAR IN UKRAINE – The Ukrainian army took prisoner a North Korean soldier deployed to fight it in support of Russia, South Korean intelligence reported this Friday, December 27, a first since kyiv and the West reported the participation of Pyongyang troops in the conflict.

This involvement of a regular foreign army constituted a major escalation of the invasion which was launched almost three years ago by Vladimir Putin and is entering a critical phase with the return in less than a month of Donald Trump to the White House.

“As part of real-time information exchanges with an allied country’s intelligence agency, it was confirmed that a wounded North Korean soldier was captured”said the South Korean National Intelligence Agency in a statement, without further details on the circumstances.

Before indicating a little later in the morning that he had died. “It has been confirmed, through an allied intelligence agency, that the North Korean soldier captured alive on December 26 has just succumbed to his worsening injuries”the intelligence agency said.

The latter reacted to publications on social networks from Ukrainian accounts reporting this capture, with photos of a soldier presented as North Korean.

According to kyiv, 12,000 North Korean soldiers, including “around 500 officers and three generals”are engaged in the Russian region of Kursk, of which the Ukrainian army has occupied several hundred square kilometers since August.

Neither Russia nor North Korea have ever confirmed the presence of this contingent alongside the Russian army.

3,000 North Korean soldiers “killed or injured”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured Monday that nearly 3,000 North Korean troops had been “killed or injured” since their engagement alongside Russia. Seoul for its part mentioned Monday 1,100 “killed or injured”.

The South Korean general staff has also observed preparations which make it believe that North Korea is preparing to send new units to Russia, as reinforcements or to relieve those already fighting, in addition to drones.

A historic mutual defense treaty between Pyongyang and Moscow, signed in June, entered into force earlier this month. He plans “immediate military aid” in the event of armed aggression by a third country.

Seoul sees North Korea as seeking to modernize its conventional warfare capabilities with Russian assistance, through experience gained in battles against Ukrainian forces.

“The involvement of the North Koreans in the fighting did not have a significant impact on the situation”Yevguen Ierin, spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), told AFP on Tuesday.

According to him, North Korean troops do not have modern combat experience, particularly in the face of drones that have become omnipresent on the battlefield, and employ “more primitive tactics, from World War II or post-World War II”.

Ukraine and Russia have intensified their strikes in recent months, with massive bombings targeting Ukraine’s energy sector on Christmas Day, and want to do everything to strengthen their positions before Donald Trump returns to the White House in January .

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