Ukraine updates: Seoul says over 3,000 N Korean casualties

Ukraine‘s air force said that air defense had downed 78 out of 110 Russian drones launched in an overnight wave attack.

“The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare units, and mobile fire groups of the Air Force and the Defense Forces of Ukraine,” the Air Force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging service.

It also said that drone debris damaged several business and residential buildings in four Ukrainian regions in the center, north, and southeast.

Russia frequently carries out attacks with Iran-supplied Shahed drones in the early hours of the morning. 

North Korean troops appear to have orders to commit suicide to evade capture, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun cited South Korea‘s National Intelligence Service (NIS).

The agency said memos found on dead North Korean soldiers indicated that they had been ordered to commit suicide before being captured, according to Lee.

“It was also found in the memos carried by those killed that North Korean authorities emphasized self-destruction and suicide before capture, and that soldiers vaguely expect to join the Workers’ Party [of North Korea] or be pardoned,” Lee said.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday Kyiv is ready to hand over North Korean soldiers to their leader Kim Jong Un in exchange for the return of Ukrainians held captive in Russia.

“In addition to the first captured soldiers from North Korea, there will undoubtedly be more. It’s only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

The Ukrainian president shared a video depicting the interrogation of two North Korean prisoners of war.

In the video, one prisoner is lying on a bunk bed, while the other is sitting up in bed with a bandage wrapped around his jaw.

Zelenskyy added that there may be other options available for those North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return and “those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in the Korean [language] will be given that opportunity.”

South Korea‘s spy agency said that North Korean troop fatalities and injuries in Russia‘s war against Ukraine had likely passed the 3,000 mark.

“The deployment of North Korean troops to Russia has reportedly expanded to include the Kursk region, with estimates suggesting that casualties among North Korean forces have surpassed 3,000,” South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters following a briefing from the intelligence agency.

The number includes “approximately 300 deaths and 2,700 injuries,” Lee said.

In October last year, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said that Pyongyang was sending as many as 12,000 troops to Russia as it continued its invasion of Ukraine.

A defense pact signed between Pyongyang and Moscow in June took effect in December.

The agreement obligates both states to provide military assistance in the case of an attack on the other, and to jointly oppose Western sanctions.

kb/ab (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)