North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine on the Russian front dies in captivity

Some evidence is beginning to be made public that points to the active combat presence of North Korean troops on the Ukrainian front. The South Korean intelligence agency reported that Kiev troops captured a North Korean uniformed man alive.

This Friday, Seoul's intelligence services added that the same North Korean uniformed man had succumbed to his wounds and died in the custody of Ukrainian forces.

"An allied spy agency confirmed that the North Korean soldier captured alive on Dec. 26 had just succumbed to his wounds, which were serious," South Korean intelligence services said in a statement.

This case would be the first of its kind on record and has been reported by the governments involved. The participation of North Korean troops in the Ukrainian conflict was denounced by Kiev and Seoul, as well as by the United States and NATO. From the White House, Pyongyang was repeatedly urged not to get involved in the war with troops on the ground.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff also reported Monday that more than 1,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded. According to this military command, North Korea is preparing to deploy more units to Russia, either as reinforcements or to relieve those already fighting.

Seoul's figures are lower than those offered by the Kiev government. This week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in the Kursk region. It was the first significant estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties.

Pyongyang and Moscow signed a landmark defense treaty in June, which took effect in early December. The agreement provides for "immediate military assistance" in the event of armed aggression by a third country.

North Korean state media reported Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a New Year's message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in which he said that "bilateral ties between our two countries have been elevated following our June talks in Pyongyang."

Photographs and notebooks

The Seoul-based Yonhap news agency has published content supporting the information provided by South Korean intelligence.

Along with the information, the agency published this Friday an image showing a man with Asian features apprehended by Ukrainian uniformed men with his face covered. The account claims that it is the North Korean soldier who died in captivity.

Some accounts dedicated to monitoring information about the conflict in Ukraine, and close to Kiev, have also published unverified images of a notebook allegedly belonging to a North Korean soldier deployed in Ukraine.

In those images, it can be seen how the North Korean soldier illustrates with a drawing a clash against a drone operated by the Ukrainian Army.