The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) yesterday backed up Ukraine’s account of having captured two wounded North Korean soldiers in Russia, after Kyiv said they were being questioned.
Ukraine, the US and South Korea have accused nuclear-armed North Korea of sending more than 10,000 soldiers to help bolster Russian forces.
The NIS said it has “confirmed that the Ukrainian military captured two North Korean soldiers on Jan. 9 in the Kursk battlefield in Russia.”
Photo: Kremlin via AP
On Saturday, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) released a video showing the two men in hospital bunks, one with bandaged hands and the other with a bandaged jaw.
A doctor at the detention center said the first man also had a broken leg.
The SBU said the men had told interrogators they were experienced army soldiers, and one said he was sent to Russia for training, not fighting.
Kyiv did not present direct evidence that the captured men were North Korean and Agence France-Presse was unable to independently verify their nationalities.
South Korea’s confirmation added weight to Kyiv’s account.
The NIS similarly said one of the captured soldiers revealed during his interrogation that he received military training from Russian forces after arriving there in November last year.
“He initially believed he was being sent for training, realizing upon arrival in Russia that he had been deployed,” the NIS said.
The soldier said North Korean forces had experienced “significant losses during battle.”
One of the men “went without food or water for four to five days before being captured,” the NIS said.
It said it would continue to work with the SBU to share information on North Korean fighters in Ukraine.
Neither Russia nor North Korea has reacted to the intelligence accounts.
Russia and North Korea have boosted their military ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, although neither has confirmed that Pyongyang’s forces are fighting for Moscow.
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