South Korea's spy agency said it has confirmed that a North Korean soldier who fought on Russia's side in the war against Ukraine has been captured by Ukrainian forces.
Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to help the Russian military, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive in August.
"Through sharing real-time information with an intelligence agency of an allied country, it has been confirmed that a wounded North Korean soldier has been captured," South Korea's National Intelligence Service said in a statement on December 27.
Seoul's announcement comes days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that almost 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been "killed or wounded" since joining forces with Russian troops.
Seoul's intelligence service has previously put the number of North Korean soldiers killed or wounded at 1,000, adding that this high number of casualties may be because Pyongyang's soldiers are unfamiliar with the battlefield and lack the ability to repel drone attacks.
North Korea and Russia have strengthened their military ties since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In June of this year, the two countries also signed a pact for common defense.
Ukraine's allies have described Pyongyang's involvement in Russia's war against Ukraine as a "dangerous expansion" of the conflict./ REL (A2 Televizion)
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