Around 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 2,700 wounded while fighting in Russia's war against Ukraine, a South Korean lawmaker said Monday, citing information from Seoul's spy agency.
"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," lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters after a briefing from the spy agency.
This includes "approximately 300 deaths and 2,700 injuries," Lee said, after a briefing from Seoul's National Intelligence Service.
The soldiers, reportedly from North Korea's elite Storm Corps, have been ordered to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner, Lee said.
"Notably, memos found on deceased soldiers indicate that the North Korean authorities pressured them to commit suicide or self-detonate before capture," he said.
He added that some of the soldiers had been granted "amnesty" or wanted to join North Korea's ruling Workers' Party, hoping to improve their lot by fighting.
One North Korean soldier who was about to be captured shouted "General Kim Jong Un" and attempted to detonate a grenade, Lee said, adding that he was shot and killed.
The NIS analysis also revealed that the North Korean soldiers have "a lack of understanding of modern warfare," and are being used by Russia in a manner leading to "the high number of casualties," the lawmaker said.
The video posted by Zelensky of the interrogation of the two North Korean prisoners of war shows one lying in a bunk bed and the other sitting up with a bandage around his jaw.
One man can be heard speaking to a Ukrainian official through an interpreter, saying that he did not know he was going to fight in a war with Ukraine and that his commanders "told him it was just training".
In translated comments, one of the men says he wants to return to North Korea.
The other says he will do what he is told but, if given the chance, wants to live in Ukraine.
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