Injured North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine forces, says South Korea
Share:
Spy agency says one soldier detained after reports emerge in Ukrainian media of possible first such capture, in Kursk region. South Korea’s spy agency has confirmed Ukrainian reports that an injured North Korean soldier has been captured by Ukrainian forces, in what could be the first capture of its kind since Pyongyang had sent combat forces to bolster Russian forces in the war in Ukraine.
The South Korean National Intelligence Service said in a statement on Friday: “Through real-time information sharing with an allied country’s intelligence agency, it has been confirmed that one injured North Korean soldier has been captured.”. A photo of the North Korean soldier, who looked gaunt and appeared to have been injured, circulated on the Telegram messaging app, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency. Details of the soldier’s condition or status are unknown.
The claim emerged after Ukraine outlet Militarnyi reported that special forces had captured the soldier in the Kursk region of Russia, where some territory has been seized and held during an incursion by Ukraine. The outlet did not say when the incident had taken place, and there has been no confirmation from officials in Ukraine or North Korea, where the state media have not referred to the deployment of the country’s troops.
Militarnyi said that, if confirmed, the soldier would be the first North Korean combatant to have been taken by Ukrainian forces. As many as 11,000 soldiers from North Korea have been deployed to help their Russian counterparts, months after the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, signed a mutual defence pact that committed each country to come to the other’s aid if attacked.
