Two North Korean soldiers captured in Kursk, Kyiv said
A retrospective on the announcement, made days before 13 January 2025, that Ukraine held two North Korean prisoners of war alive.
What did it mean when Ukraine said it had captured North Korean soldiers alive? On 13 January 2025, the announcement was still fresh: two days earlier, on 11 January 2025, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had taken two North Korean soldiers prisoner in Russia's Kursk Oblast.
According to Zelenskyy, the two men were captured in healthy condition. It was the first time such captives had been taken since North Korea entered the war. Two earlier North Korean prisoners of war had died of their injuries shortly after being captured, so the new captures stood apart from those cases.
The announcement came amid the Kursk offensive, in which Ukrainian forces were operating on Russian territory, and it drew attention to North Korea's involvement in Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
A longer relationship
North Korea's support for Russia in the wider war predated the Kursk fighting. It has backed Moscow since 2017, when it recognised Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea. In July 2022, Pyongyang recognised the Russia-backed, self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, and Ukraine responded by severing diplomatic ties with North Korea.
Against that background, the capture of two living North Korean soldiers in Kursk Oblast was reported as a notable development in the war.
