Pyongyang's monthly troop losses could skyrocket if it deploys more troops to the frontlines in Kursk and continues sustaining high losses.
Ukraine’s president released a video of the two soldiers being interrogated, revealing they knew little about the war they were sent to fight in.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he’s willing to hand over the soldiers to North Korea, if Kim Jong Un arranges for an exchange with Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia.
A South Korean lawmaker said Seoul's intelligence showed some 3,000 North Korean troops have been wounded or killed in Kursk.
"I didn't even know who we were fighting against," the captured soldier from Pyongyang told Ukraine's Security Service.
Ukrainian troops captured two North Korean soldiers as prisoners of war (POWs) in Russia's Kursk Oblast, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Jan. 11. "This task was not easy," he said in a Telegram post.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the wounded North Korean soldiers were taken to Kyiv and are communicating with Ukrainian officials.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted a video showing the apparent interrogation of two North Korean soldiers captured alive in the war.
South Korea's intelligence agency estimates that approximately 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and another 2,700 injured while fighting alongside Russian forces against Ukraine. This marks North Korea's first participation in a large-scale conflict since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.
A think tank expert has anticipated no "detente" between the United States and North Korea in new U.S. President Donald Trump's first month in office, pointing to the recalcitrant regime's advancing nuclear capabilities and growing ties with Russia.