South Korean spy agency: North Korean soldier captured in Ukraine war dies | News of the war between Russia and Ukraine

The intelligence report comes days after the Ukrainian president said that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded” in the fighting.

A North Korean soldier, who was fighting for Russia, died in Ukrainian captivity from serious injuries, according to the South Korean spy agency.

The announcement by Seoul’s National Intelligence Service on Friday came hours after Yonhap News Agency quoted the agency as confirming for the first time that Ukrainian forces had captured a North Korean soldier. The report stated that he was alive, although the place where he was kidnapped was unknown.

Pyongyang has published Thousands of troops To reinforce the Russian army, particularly in the Kursk border region where Ukraine launched a surprise border incursion in August.

Confirmation of the soldier’s death came days after the killing of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky It claimed that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or injured” so far when they joined Russian forces in combat.

This represents Ukraine’s first major estimate of North Korean casualties several weeks after Kiev announced that North Korea had sent between 10,000 and 12,000 soldiers to Russia to help it in the nearly three-year-old war.

Ukrainian military intelligence, known by its acronym GUR, said North Korean units inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean units due to Ukrainian strikes near Novoyvanovka in Kursk, supply problems and even a shortage of drinking water.

Strengthening relationships

North Korea and Russia have strengthened their military relations since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The historic defense agreement between Pyongyang and Moscow, signed in June, entered into force this month, and Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed it as a “breakthrough document.”

Ukraine’s allies have described Pyongyang’s increasing involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “dangerous expansion” of the conflict.

South Korean politician Lee Seung-kwon said last week that Pyongyang’s soldiers “are being used as expendable offensive units on the front lines.”