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Ukrainian forces captured a wounded North Korean soldier who was sent to support Russia’s war effort, South Korea’s spy agency confirmed Friday.
The soldier is believed to be the first North Korean prisoner of war captured since December, when Pyongyang deployed forces to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The confirmation comes after a photograph purportedly showing the wounded soldier circulated on Telegram.
North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to help Russia, according to kyiv and Seoul, although Moscow and Pyongyang have neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
“This is the first in a series of captures and killings,” Yang Uk, a researcher at the Asian Institute of Policy Studies, told the BBC. “For the Ukrainians, it is more beneficial to capture these North Korean troops and try to exchange them with the Russians for Ukrainian prisoners of war.”
Recent images emerging from the war between Russia and Ukraine confirmed speculation that “North Korean troops will be deployed in large numbers for the assault on Russian orders,” Yang said.
However, he added that “it will be a challenge to prove his North Korean nationality.”
Ukrainian forces say North Korean soldiers have been issued fake Russian IDs, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed earlier this month that Russian soldiers had been seen burning the faces of North Koreans who died in battle, supposedly to hide their identities.
More than 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded while fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, Zelenskyy said Monday.
He added that collaboration between Moscow and Pyongyang increases the “risk of destabilization” around the Korean Peninsula.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The recent deployment of North Korean troops to Russia is a sign of a growing alliance between the two pariah states.
The development, which comes as North Korea escalates tensions with South Korea, has raised concerns in the West. China, a long-standing ally of both sides, is also cautiously monitoring friendship.
