For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
An injured North Korean soldier captured by Ukrainian forces has died, according to South Korean media.
The man is thought to be the first North Korean prisoner of war taken into custody since Pyongyang sent troops to aid Russia in the conflict in Ukraine.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said it had confirmed through an “allied intelligence agency” that the soldier had died from “serious injuries”, Yonhap News Agency reported.
North Korea’s recent deployment of troops to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, confirmed by both the US and Nato, has raised serious concerns across Asia and with Kyiv’s Western allies.
The move threatens to widen the nearly three-year conflict and is fuelling security anxieties in South Korea and beyond about potential concessions Russia might offer North Korea in return.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to help Russia, according to Kyiv and Seoul. Moscow and Pyongyang have not confirmed nor denied their presence.
It comes as Ukraine’s military intelligence said North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in the fighting in Russia‘s Kursk region and are facing logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks.
The intelligence agency, known under its acronym GUR, said Ukrainian strikes near Novoivanovka inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean units.
It said as a result of Ukrainian attacks along the front line North Korean troops also faced supply issues and even experienced shortages of drinking water.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that 3,000 North Korean troops have been killed and wounded in the fighting in the Kursk region.
The casualty disclosure came as the Biden administration was pressing to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump takes over.
Russia has meanwhile warned it “rules out nothing” regarding nuclear testing in response to Donald Trump’s “radical” position on the issue during his first term as president.
Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees arms control, warned the United States that its nuclear arsenal is intended to “sober up” countries on the “brink of direct armed conflict” with Russia.
Russia, the US and China are all undertaking major modernisations of their nuclear weapons just as the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) of the Cold War era between the Soviet Union and the US is starting to fall apart.
On the battlefield, Russia claimed its forces had taken control of two eastern Ukrainian villages, Ivanivka in the Donetsk region, and Zahryzove in the Kharkiv region.
RIA state news agency reported Russia had downed four British-made Storm Shadow missiles in the past week.
Ukrainian air defence shot down 13 out of 24 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack on Friday, officials said. Military analysts said Ukraine has increasingly been using electronic warfare to redirect or spoof Russian drones.
