North Korean Soldier in Ukrainian Captivity Dies From Wounds: Reports

The first North Korean soldier captured by Ukrainian forces in combat died from complications of his wounds, sources in Seoul and Kyiv confirmed.

Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS), citing updates from an unnamed “friendly country,” said the soldier was badly injured in fighting prior to being taken prisoner and died in a Ukrainian medical facility on Friday, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.

The soldier had been captured by Ukrainian troops three days after he was wounded, the Ukrainian defense outlet Militarniy reported on Monday.

Special Operations Forces (SSO) reportedly captured the soldier in a raid in Russia’s Kursk region last week, and the soldier survived one day in captivity before dying of injuries, the report said.

Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR), in a Sunday statement, said that Russia has deployed around 12,000 North Korean troops to western Russia, where Ukrainian forces have held an enclave of Russian Federation territory since August.

HUR-sourced imagery showed a purported ambush site where the wounded soldier was taken prisoner. One photograph showed a soldier with Asian facial features receiving medical treatment. 

Other images showed three corpses wearing Russian military uniforms, ammunition boxes, Russian army personal identification documents, and an intact Russian BTR-80 armored personnel carrier claimed by HUR to have been captured after a Ukrainian SSO team ambushed a North Korean combat unit.

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One identification document seemed to show one of the dead soldiers had been assigned to Russia’s 810th Naval Infantry Brigade, a combat formation deployed in the Kursk region and, according to Ukrainian military intelligence, the primary parent unit for North Korean troops operating in Russia.

Separate images (warning: photos linked contain graphic elements) of a male corpse with similar facial features inside an open body bag were published by Ukrainian milbloggers on Monday. Kyiv Post could not confirm the photos’ authenticity. 

The first images of possible North Korean troops in action against Ukrainian forces appeared in early December. Most images show men with Asiatic facial features and wearing Russian army uniforms, ostensibly having been taking cover from a Ukrainian observation drone.

According to combat reports from Ukrainian units deployed to the salient, Russian commanders kicked off major assaults by North Korean troops on Dec. 20. Battle reports and drone video of the attacks showed waves of soldiers identified as North Koreans wilting under repeated strikes by Ukrainian artillery, mortars and first-person view (FPV) drones.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his Dec. 23 comments to Kyiv media, said that more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or injured in combat against Ukrainian forces and that the casualties were continuing.