Zelenskyy ‘ready to hand over’ captured N Korea soldiers for Ukrainian POWs 

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Kyiv is “ready to hand over” captured North Korean soldiers in exchange for Ukrainian prisoners of war held in Russia.

The offer on Sunday came hours after South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) confirmed Ukraine’s announcement that it had captured two North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region.

Writing on X, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was willing to hand over the soldiers to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia”.

The Ukrainian leader said there would “undoubtedly be more” North Korean soldiers captured in battle. “It’s only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others,” he said.

Ukraine said on Saturday the two soldiers had been wounded fighting its troops in Russia’s Kursk region. It marked the first time that Kyiv has announced the capture of North Korean soldiers alive since their entry into the nearly three-year-old war last autumn.

Ukrainian and Western assessments say that some 11,000 troops from Russia’s ally North Korea have been deployed in the Kursk region to support Moscow’s forces.

Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.

Zelenskyy said Russia and North Korea’s forces had suffered heavy losses.

He posted a short video showing the interrogation of two men who are presented as North Korean soldiers. One of them is lying on a bed with bandaged hands, the other is sitting with a bandage on his jaw.

One of the men said through an interpreter that he did not know he was fighting against Ukraine and had been told he was on a training exercise.

He said he hid in a shelter during the offensive and was found a couple of days later. He said that if he was ordered to return to North Korea, he would, but that he was ready to stay in Ukraine if given the chance.

Al Jazeera could not verify the video.

“One of them [soldiers] expressed a desire to stay in Ukraine, the other to return to Korea,” Zelenskyy said in a televised statement.

He added that for North Korean soldiers who did not wish to return home, there may be other options available, and “those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in the Korean [language] will be given that opportunity.”

He did not provide specific details.

South Korea’s NIS, meanwhile, told the AFP news agency that it had “confirmed that the Ukrainian military captured two North Korean soldiers on January 9 in the Kursk battlefield in Russia”.

The NIS said one of the captured soldiers had revealed that he received military training from Russian forces after arriving there in November.

“He initially believed he was being sent for training, realising upon arrival in Russia that he had been deployed,” the NIS said. The soldier also said North Korean forces had experienced “significant losses during battle”.

Neither Russia nor North Korea has reacted to the intelligence accounts.

Zelenskyy had said last month that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded” fighting for Russia. But Seoul put the figure at 1,000.

The NIS told South Korean lawmakers last month that “several North Korean casualties” had already been attributed to Ukrainian missile and drone attacks as well as training accidents, with the highest ranking “at least at the level of a general”.

Due to losses among its forces, North Korea is preparing for additional deployment to Ukraine, according to Seoul’s military.