First North Korean soldier taken prisoner by Ukrainian army, South Korean intelligence says

This is unprecedented in the conflict. Ukrainian forces have taken prisoner a North Korean soldier deployed in support of the Russian army, South Korean intelligence reported on Friday. This is the first known case of a North Korean taken prisoner alive since kyiv and the West reported Pyongyang sending soldiers to support its Russian ally.

“As part of real-time information exchanges with an allied country’s intelligence agency, it was confirmed that a wounded North Korean soldier was captured,” the South Korean National Agency said. Korean intelligence in a press release, without further details on the circumstances. The latter reacted to publications on social networks from Ukrainian accounts reporting this capture, with photos of a soldier presented as North Korean.

Tactics “from the Second World War”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky assured Monday that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or injured” since their engagement alongside Russia. Seoul, for its part, mentioned 1,100 “killed or injured” on Monday.

The general staff of the South Korean forces also observed preparations which make them believe that North Korea is preparing to send new units to Russia, as reinforcements or to relieve those already fighting, in addition to drones.

“The involvement of the North Koreans in the fighting has not had a significant impact on the situation,” Yevgen Ierin, spokesperson for Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR), told AFP on Tuesday. According to him, North Korean troops do not have modern combat experience, particularly in the face of drones that have become omnipresent on the battlefield, and use “more primitive tactics, from the Second World War or after.” -Second World War.”