A North Korean soldier fighting with Russian forces has died from serious injuries while in Ukrainian custody, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS). The announcement came on Friday after a report from Yonhap news agency confirmed that Ukrainian troops had captured a North Korean soldier for the first time.
Details of his capture remain unclear, but it was initially reported that he had been taken alive. Pyongyang has reportedly deployed thousands of troops to prop up Russian military efforts, particularly in the Kursk region, after Ukraine staged a surprise incursion there in August.
News about the soldier’s death came after comments by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, saying that close to 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been “killed or wounded” since their soldiers were deployed along with the Russian forces. That would be Ukraine’s first serious estimate of North Korean losses, amid earlier reports indicating North Korea had sent in as many as 10,000 to 12,000 troops to help Russia with the invasion.
According to Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, the GUR, North Korean units suffered heavy losses as a result of Ukrainian strikes around Novoivanovka in Kursk, not to mention problems with logistics and the general shortage of key supplies, even drinking water.
In a press briefing, White House spokesperson John Kirby echoed the same sentiment: The United States believes that North Korean forces are taking high casualties in the war. Kirby noted that in the past week alone, as many as 1,000 North Korean troops were reportedly killed or wounded in the Kursk area. He accused North Korean military leadership of treating the soldiers as expendable amid what he called “hopeless assaults” against Ukrainian defenses.
The military relationship between North Korea and Russia has deepened since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The most important in a slew of defense deals the two signed in June, went into effect this month, and is described as a “breakthrough document” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As North Korea’s involvement deepens, international observers warn that this represents a “dangerous expansion” of the conflict. The North Korean soldiers were being used as “expendable front-line assault units,” South Korean politician Lee Seong-kweun said recently.
