Volodymyr Zelensky has offered North Korea to return its captive soldiers if Kim Jong Un is able to have Moscow release Ukrainian prisoners.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he “ready” Sunday to hand over to Pyongyang, in exchange for Ukrainian soldiers imprisoned in Russia, the two North Korean soldiers that kyiv has just captured in the Russian region of Kursk.
“Ukraine is ready to hand over its soldiers to Kim Jong Un if he can organize their exchange for our fighters who are detained in Russia”wrote Volodymyr Zelensky on his X account. kyiv announced on Saturday that it had taken prisoner two wounded North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have occupied several hundred km2 since last August.
The South Korean national intelligence service confirmed this version to AFP on Sunday, affirming that the two soldiers captured on January 9 were indeed North Korean. Volodymyr Zelensky added on Sunday evening that“there will undoubtedly be more” of North Korean soldiers captured in the future by kyiv. At the end of December, the Ukrainian president had already announced that two seriously injured North Korean soldiers had been captured in the Kursk region, but the soldiers had succumbed to their injuries.
“For North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return (to their country), there could be other possible options”he continued on Sunday: those who “will tell the truth about this war in Korean will have this opportunity”. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have reacted at this stage, with neither country having acknowledged that North Korean soldiers were deployed to fight Ukrainian forces.
Volodymyr Zelensky once again declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin “cannot now do without military support from Pyongyang”. Ukraine, the United States and South Korea accuse Pyongyang of sending more than 10,000 troops to help Russian forces. In December, Volodymyr Zelensky said that nearly 3,000 North Korean troops had been “killed or injured” on site, while Seoul put forward the figure of 1000.
Significant losses
Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service released a video on Saturday showing the two soldiers trapped in hospital bunks with bandages, one on their hands, the other on their jaw. Its South Korean counterpart, the NIS, said one of the 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 when he arrived in Russia that he had been deployed” at the front, according to the NIS. The soldier said North Korean forces suffered heavy “significant losses during the fighting”according to this source. Seoul’s intelligence agency also said one of the men had “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. Volodymyr Zelensky indicated 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 the participation of another state, North Korea, in the war against ‘Ukraine”he said.
Tightened military ties
The alleged involvement of a foreign army constituted a major escalation in the invasion of Ukraine launched nearly three years ago by Vladimir Putin and which is entering a critical phase with the imminent return of Donald Trump to the House White. Russia and North Korea have strengthened their military ties since this invasion.
During a visit to Seoul in early January, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia was expanding space cooperation with North Korea in exchange for its troops contributing to the fight against ‘Ukraine. He also said that Russia “could be close” of official recognition of the status of a nuclear power for North Korea.
The general staff of the South Korean forces, for its part, 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 of drones. On the ground in Ukraine, in the fighting between the armies of kyiv and Moscow, the latter claimed on Sunday the capture of two localities in the east: Yantarné, in the Donetsk region, and Kalinové, in that of Kharkiv further to the north.
The Russian army has been progressing slowly but constantly on the front for months against fewer Ukrainian troops, but without achieving any major breakthrough.
