South Korea's spy agency confirmed Friday that Ukrainian forces captured a wounded North Korean soldier sent to support Russia's war.
The soldier is believed to be the first North Korean prisoner of war captured since December, when Pyongyang deployed troops to support Russia's war in Ukraine.
This confirmation comes after a photo purportedly showing the wounded soldier was posted on the Telegram app.
North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to help Russia, according to Kiev and Seoul, although Moscow and Pyongyang have neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
“This is the first in a series of arrests and killings,” Yang Ok, a researcher at the Asian Institute for Policy Studies, told the BBC. “For the Ukrainians, it is more beneficial to seize these North Korean forces and try to exchange them with the Russians for Ukrainian prisoners of war.”
Yang said recent images of the Russia-Ukraine war confirmed speculation that “North Korean forces will deploy in large numbers to attack the Russian leadership.”
He also added that “it would be difficult to prove their North Korean nationality.”
Ukrainian forces say North Korean soldiers were given fake Russian identity cards, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed earlier this month that Russian soldiers were spotted burning the faces of North Koreans who died in battle – allegedly to hide their identities.
More than 3,000 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded during fighting in Russia's Kursk region, Zelensky said on Monday.
He added that cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang increases the “risk of destabilization” on 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 the growing alliance between the two pariah nations.
This development, which comes at a time when North Korea is escalating tensions with South Korea, has raised concerns in the West. China, a long-time ally of both sides, as well Keep a careful eye on the friendship.
