UPDATED at 6:10 a.m. ET on Dec. 27, 2024.
TAIPEI, Taiwan – A North Korean soldier who was captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region has died from his wounds, South Korea’s spy agency confirmed.
The National Intelligence Service, or NIS, said earlier on Friday that an injured North Korean soldier was captured alive in Kursk, following the release of a photo by Ukrainian media purportedly showing the soldier in custody.
“We confirmed through a friendly nation’s intelligence organization that a North Korean solider, captured alive on Dec. 26, died a short while ago as [his] wounds worsened,” said the NIS on Friday, without elaborating.
Up to 12,000 North Korean soldiers are reportedly in Russia to support its war efforts against Ukraine in Kursk. Ukraine reports over 3,000 casualties among them, while South Korea estimates at least 1,100 have been killed or wounded.
The NIS’s confirmation came after Ukrainian media reported that Ukrainian forces had for the first time likely captured a North Korean prisoner of war helping Russian forces.
Ukraine’s special operations troops took the soldier during operations in Kursk, the military-focused news outlet Militarnyi reported on Thursday, without specifying when he was captured.
Images of what appeared to be a wounded North Korean soldier in custody surfaced on Telegram, though details about the man’s condition and status were not known. Radio Free Asia has not been able to independently confirm the photo.
Militarnyi said that if confirmed, it would mark the first capture by Ukraine of a North Korean soldier fighting for Russia.
In an October parliament hearing, the NIS said the South Korean government should have agents on the ground to communicate with North Korean soldiers in case they are captured or surrendered.
In response to a question about what would the government do if a North Korean soldier asked to defect to South Korea, the NIS said: “Under international and domestic law, South Korea must accept the request.”
“There are some aspects that we must consider such as North Korea’s influence … we must respect the person’s wishes and consider the request to defect,” the agency added.
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Neither President Vladimir Putin nor North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has confirmed the North’s troop deployment to Russia but Ukraine has revealed evidence of North Korean involvement in the war, including a soldier’s notebook detailing drone attack tactics and a handwritten note found on the body of a North Korean soldier in Kursk.
A video has also surfaced of captured Russian soldiers criticizing the poor discipline of North Korean troops, while President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian forces of burning the faces of dead North Korean soldiers to keep their deployment secret.
Edited by RFA Staff.
Updated to include South Korean spy agency’s confirmation of the death of the captured North Korean soldier.