Valuable North Korean soldier who was seized in Kursk dies

SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean soldier captured by Ukrainian forces for the first time in the Russo-Ukraine War has died of wounds, sources from both Kyiv and Seoul claimed Friday.

If the information is correct, Kyiv gained, then lost, an important tactical and political asset. A live North Korean would have filled holes in widespread, but tantalizingly unconfirmed, sources of intelligence alleging that Pyongyang has become the first third-party nation to join the Russo-Ukrainian War.

A photo widely shared online showed a dazed-looking soldier of Asian ethnicity, in a camouflage uniform with apparent bloodstains on the upper left chest area, pictured in what appears to be a stretcher with restraints.

No information that might confirm identity — such as a unit patch, documentation or an audio clip of him speaking Korean — appeared.

A second photo released subsequently and circulated on social media appeared to show the man dead, in a body bag.

The original image, and related information, was first shared on Ukrainian Channel Militarnyi on Telegram. According to Militarnyi, the man was seized by Ukraine’s special operations forces.

South Korean intelligence confirmed the capture in a release covered by Yonhap News Agency.  

“Through real-time information sharing with a friendly nation’s intelligence organization, (we) confirmed the capture of a wounded North Korean soldier,” the National Intelligence Service said.

Hours later, the NIS said it had received information that the man had succumbed to wounds.

Kyiv, Seoul and Washington have claimed that a North Korean force, estimated at 11,000 to 13,000 troops, is operating alongside Russian forces.

Intelligence gathered thus far has not conclusively proven these contentions.

Photographs shot at Russian training facilities and drone footage captured close over the battlefield show Asian troops, but not definitively North Koreans. Ethnic Asians, such as Buryats, are heavily represented in Russia’s armed forces.

And signals intercepts, alleged to be from North Korean and/or Russian sources, could be disinformation. 

Ukraine appears eager to confirm North Korean presence. On Thursday, it released what it said was a message taken from a dead North Korean soldier. Written in Korea’s hangul script, it appears to be a birthday greeting to a comrade.

A live prisoner of war would have offered definite physical confirmation of Pyongyang’s deployment.

A retired U.S. Army interrogator with two decades of experience in debriefing captured North Koreans said captured enemies are critical — particularly given that North Korea has decades of experience in spoofing listening stations by broadcasting false information.

“The North Koreans have been doing signals deception since the 1950s,” said Bob Collins, who currently advises senior U.S. officers on North Korea. “It is important to have different angles of intelligence — photos, signals and interrogations, or debriefings.”

He suggested Kyiv might have conducted a dedicated snatch operation.

“The Ukrainians have proven to be pretty smart,” he said. “It is not uncommon to have missions to go out and grab certain people.”

The photo of the alleged North Korean showed him on a stretcher or body bag, complete with restraints. 

A possibility exists that he killed himself.

“In some cases of highly trained operatives, they commit suicide with suicide pills — they have even bit off their own tongues with their teeth,” said Yang Uk, a security expert at Seoul’s Asan Institute.

Instructions on how to commit suicide with a grenade, written in Korean, have allegedly been found by Ukrainian forces. 

Certainly, North Koreans have killed themselves and their comrades to prevent live captures.

Amphibious commandos killed sailors on two separate submarines that lost propulsion off South Korea in the 1990s. All evidence is that the sailors submitted to their deaths.

One of the spies who bombed a South Korean airliner in 1987 committed suicide via pills. Commandoes who blew up a visiting South Korean delegation in 1987 attempted suicide with hand grenades.

All had ample reason to kill themselves, Mr. Collins said.

“If I kill myself, my family will be treated decently,” he said of North Korean prisoners. “But if I am in betrayal, they will go to a prison camp. They know that.”

However, some captured personnel — notably a commando who attempted to assassinate the South Korean president in 1968, a spy involved in the aircraft bombing and an operative involved in the Rangoon bombing — have been fonts of intelligence.

As well as basic information such as his unit, Mr. Collins suggested that a KPA soldier captured in Russia’s Kursk oblast could provide important tactical information.

“In the first 30 minutes, you’d say, ‘How did you get there, how did you prepare and also what did you do wrong,’” he said.

Mr. Collins added that by finding out where and in what positions they deployed, Russian positional and manpower weaknesses would be exposed. The man could also offer information on the chain of command.

Currently, Ukraine is on the defensive and losing ground to Russia across all sections of the front. Meanwhile, support for Kyiv is fraying among many of his partners.

If a North Korean presence in a European war is definitely proven, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — who has personally been releasing information about North Korean troops — stands to make political capital.

“South Korea and Trump are not eager to help Ukraine, and the same goes for some European countries,” said Mr. Yang, referring to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. “If Zelensky can prove that North Koreans are actually there, it would be humiliating for Europe. That is the agenda.”

Various sources estimate the North Korean troops, likely deployed in four light infantry brigades, are in Russia’s Kursk oblast fighting alongside Russian airborne and naval infantry assault units.

The forces are fighting to eject a Ukrainian lodgment inside Russia, established during a surprise August offensive by Kyiv.

In June, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a “strategic partnership.” Its fourth article is a clause calling for mutual defense if the territory of either party is taken by an enemy force.