South Korea’s National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in Seoul on Monday that it estimates 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 2,700 others wounded in battles against Ukraine. The White House has put the toll even higher.
Memos found with dead North Korean soldiers indicated that their government had urged the highly indoctrinated troops to end their own lives rather than be captured in the battlefield, according to South Korean lawmakers who briefed journalists after a closed-door meeting with the spy agency, echoing an assertion made by Mr. Zelensky. One North Korean soldier was trying to blow himself up with a grenade, shouting the name of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, when he was shot by Ukrainian troops, they said.
North Korea has not responded to reports of its troops captured or killed by Ukraine forces. It has never publicized the deployment or large shipments of North Korean artillery shells and other weapons sent to Russia to help its war against Ukraine, although they marked the country’s first intervention in a major armed conflict overseas in decades.
In the video released by Mr. Zelensky, the voice of an official questioning the North Koreans was distorted, perhaps to prevent their identification, and the captured troops were clearly still wounded. Ukraine said the soldiers had received medical care and had been taken to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, for interrogation. But by posting the video clip online, Ukraine also appeared to use the POWs in its messaging to the West.
The Ukrainian leader has seized the involvement of North Korean troops for Russia as a way to try and galvanize more support from allies. South Korea, too, has cited North Korea’s growing military alliance with Russia as a source for international concern.
