Ukraine has captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia, Zelensky says
The wounded fighters were taken to Kyiv for questioning, authorities said, where they could reveal details of Pyongyang’s cooperation with Moscow.
KYIV — Ukraine has captured two wounded North Korean soldiers from the battlefield in Russia’s Kursk region and transported them to Kyiv for questioning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday, the first time Ukraine has confirmed detaining North Korean troops since they were deployed late last year.
“Two soldiers, though wounded, survived and were transported to Kyiv, where they are now communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine,” Zelensky wrote on Instagram in a post that included photos of the prisoners. “This was not an easy task: Russian forces and other North Korean military personnel usually execute their wounded to erase any evidence of North Korea’s involvement in the war against Ukraine.”
“As with all prisoners of war, these two North Korean soldiers are receiving the necessary medical assistance,” he wrote. He said he had instructed security officials to grant journalists access to the prisoners. “The world needs to know the truth about what is happening.”
Ukraine’s internal security service, the SBU, said the capture provided “indisputable evidence” of North Korean involvement in the war. One of the soldiers was taken by Ukrainian special forces, the service said in a statement; the other, by Ukrainian paratroopers.
The prisoners, who were captured fighting in the small part of western Russia that Ukraine has controlled since August, could offer Kyiv important intelligence about the collaboration between Pyongyang and Moscow. Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defense pact in November, and Ukraine has said at least 11,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to help retake Ukrainian-occupied territory.
Ukrainian troops first reported the large-scale arrival of North Korean troops on the battlefield in mid-December and Zelensky said this week that at least 4,000 have already been killed or wounded.
Photos posted by Zelensky showed one soldier in a striped sweater lying in a cot in a detention center with both arms bandaged and another in a military jacket with swollen lips and bandages around his head. The second soldier is also shown sipping from a cup through a straw in a room with two sets of bunk beds. His lower bunk is the only one occupied. The room appears clean with a radiator and a window protected with metal bars.
The post includes posted photos of a passport-like Russian language document. It shows its bearer’s birth year as 1998. Ukrainian officials have warned for months that North Korean troops would be deployed with Russian documents to disguise their nationality.
The prisoners do not speak Ukrainian, English or Russian, the SBU said, so Ukraine is using Korean-language interpreters in cooperation with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. The soldier with the bandaged arms told questioners the passport-like document was issued to him late last year in Russia, the service said. He said he believed he was being sent there for training. He said he was born in 2005 and had joined the North Korean military in 2021.
The other soldier, who wounded his jaw, answered questions in writing, the SBU said. He said he was born in 1999 and had served as a scout sniper in North Korea since 2016.
Video published by the SBU shows a Ukrainian doctor, his face blurred, saying a dentist will treat the soldier with the wounded jaw. The other soldier, the doctor says, has a fractured leg with an open wound. Ukrainian troops fighting in the Kursk region have described waves of Korean troops appearing on the battlefield in mid-December with little apparent preparation for the conflict as it’s being waged. They moved in large groups and appeared not to react to lethally armed drones hovering overhead. Unlike Russian soldiers, who typically move in small groups to avoid detection and flee drones, the North Korean soldiers plowed forward even as their fellow troops were killed and wounded beside them, Ukrainian soldiers have said.
Oleh, a Ukrainian special forces soldier fighting in Kursk, said his unit captured a badly wounded North Korean in late December, but he died within four hours, before he could be transported for questioning. Others, he said, have killed themselves with grenades to avoid capture.
