South Korean intelligence reports that North Korean soldiers have been ordered to commit suicide to avoid capture.

North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region have been ordered to kill themselves if they face the threat of capture by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Source. This was reported by the National Intelligence Service (NIS) of South Korea, as conveyed by Yonhap News.

According to the agency, by early January, around 300 soldiers from North Korea had already died in combat, and about 2,700 were injured.

The massive losses among North Korean troops were attributed by intelligence officials to a "misunderstanding of modern warfare tactics," including "futile" shooting at long-range drones.

On January 11, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had captured the first North Korean soldiers alive.

“This task was not easy: usually, Russians and other military personnel from North Korea finish off their wounded and do everything possible to eliminate evidence of another state – North Korea – participating in the war against Ukraine,” Zelensky explained.

The Ukrainian president also suggested to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un the possibility of exchanging prisoners of war for Ukrainian soldiers held by Russia.

“For those soldiers from North Korea who do not wish to return, there may be other options. In particular, those Koreans who express a desire to promote peace by spreading the truth about this war in Korean will have that opportunity,” Zelensky stated.

He emphasized that following the first captured North Korean soldiers, “there will certainly be others.”

“It is only a matter of time before our guys manage to capture more,” Zelensky underscored.

Background. As reported by Radio Liberty, Russian forces did not allow the extraction of a captured North Korean soldier from the positions – this was already the third attempt to capture North Korean military personnel, with the previous two ending in suicides.