“Notes found on dead soldiers indicate that North Korean authorities pressured them to commit suicide,” including “blowing themselves up before capture,” a South Korean MP said on Monday.
Some 300 North Korean soldiers were killed out of the thousands deployed by Pyongyang in Russia to support its war against Ukraine, a South Korean MP said on Monday, December 13, citing Seoul’s intelligence service. Ukraine, the United States and South Korea have accused nuclear-armed Pyongyang of sending more than 10,000 troops to help Russian forces in their invasion.
“Estimates indicate that the number of casualties in the ranks of the North Korean forces exceeded 3,000, including approximately 300 dead and 2,700 injured”Lee Seong-kweun told reporters after a South Korean intelligence briefing. “Notes found on dead soldiers indicate North Korean authorities pressured them to commit suicide”and buy in “blowing himself up before capture”continued the elected official.
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“Cannon fodder”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced this Saturday that two North Korean soldiers were currently taken prisoner and interrogated in kyiv. The alleged involvement of a foreign army constituted a major escalation in the invasion of Ukraine launched almost three years ago by Vladimir Putin and which is entering a critical phase with the imminent return of Donald Trump White. South Korea mentioned units considered as “cannon fodder”possibly exchanged for Russian technological aid while the North, equipped with nuclear weapons, seeks to strengthen its arsenal.
Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have acknowledged that North Korean troops had been deployed to fight Ukrainian forces. According to kyiv, the two captured North Koreans were injured in the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukrainian forces have occupied several hundred km2 since last August. “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”Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on his X account on Sunday.
For those “who do not wish to return (to their country), there could be other possible options”he added, saying that those who “will tell the truth about this war in Korean will have this opportunity”. In December, the Ukrainian president said that nearly 3,000 North Korean troops had been “killed or injured” on site, while Seoul put forward the figure of 1000. Russia and North Korea have strengthened their military ties since the invasion of Ukraine. The two countries are notably linked by a mutual defense pact ratified in November.
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