Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on China to exert influence on North Korea in response to the deployment of North Korean soldiers alongside Russian troops in the Ukraine war.
“The Korean nation should not lose its people in the battles in Europe. And this can be influenced, particularly by Korea’s neighbors, especially China,” Zelensky said in his evening video address on Friday.
“If China is sincere in its statements that the war should not escalate, it must exert appropriate pressure on Pyongyang,” he added. China is the closest ally of the isolated communist country.
Moscow is mainly using the North Korean troops in its attempts to regain the Russian area of Kursk, which is partly occupied by Ukrainian troops, Zelensky said.
“We can see that the Russian military and the North Korean enforcers have no interest in the survival of these Koreans at all,” Zelensky continued.
North Korea has reportedly sent some 10,000 troops to Russia to support Moscow in its fight against Kiev.
Injured North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine dies
Earlier on Friday, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that a captured North Korean soldier had died of injuries sustained in combat in Russia.
The wounded man was captured by Ukrainian troops on Thursday in the front-line Kursk region and succumbed to his injuries a day later, Yonhap reported, citing the South Korean intelligence service (NIS).
The NIS in turn cited the “intelligence service of a friendly country.” It was not stated which country this was.
A photo purporting to show the captured soldier had been circulating on the Telegram messaging app.
After undergoing brief training and being equipped with Russian weaponry, the North Korean troops were reportedly integrated into Russian forces in the Kursk region, which Ukrainian troops invaded in August.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently stated that over 3,000 North Korean soldiers have either been killed or wounded, though this estimate cannot be independently verified.
US: North Korean troops face heavy losses
The US government has also stated that North Korean troops have been deployed in large numbers on the front lines near Kursk.
On Friday, John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said that these forces are believed to have carried out extensive assaults against Ukrainian positions.
Kirby noted that the “human wave tactics” of unprotected foot assaults have proven highly ineffective, resulting “in heavy casualties for these North Korean forces.”
US estimates suggest that over 1,000 North Korean soldiers were killed or wounded in the past week alone, he said.
Additionally, reports indicate that some North Korean soldiers have chosen suicide over surrender, likely driven by fear of reprisals against their families in North Korea should they be captured, Kirby added.
