SEOUL: A North Korean soldier who was captured whereas combating in Russia’s battle towards Ukraine has died of his wounds, South Korea’s spy company stated on Friday (Dec 27).
Pyongyang has deployed 1000’s of troops to bolster Russia’s army, together with within the Kursk border area the place Ukraine mounted a shock border incursion in August.
A kind of North Korean troopers was captured alive by the Ukrainian military on Thursday, a South Korean intelligence supply instructed AFP, including that the placement the place he was seized was not recognized.
Hours later, Seoul’s Nationwide Intelligence Service (NIS) stated that the soldier had succumbed to his wounds.
“It has been confirmed by means of an allied intelligence company that the North Korean soldier captured alive on Dec 26 has simply handed away resulting from worsening wounds,” the South’s spy company stated in a press release.
Friday’s affirmation got here days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that just about 3,000 North Korean troopers had been “killed or wounded” as far as they joined Russian troops in fight.
South Korea’s intelligence service had beforehand put the variety of killed or wounded North Koreans at 1,000, saying the excessive casualty charge may very well be all the way down to an unfamiliar battlefield atmosphere and their lack of functionality to counter drone assaults.
Pyongyang’s troopers had been additionally being “utilised as expendable frontline assault models”, lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun stated, talking final week after a briefing by South Korea’s spy company.
