What did Ukraine's capture of two North Korean soldiers signal?
A look back at the announcement, reported on 11 January 2025, that two North Korean soldiers had been taken alive in Kursk Oblast.
What did it mean when Ukraine said it held two North Korean soldiers in good health? The question was raised by an announcement reported on 11 January 2025, and it was still being weighed on 13 January 2025, the day this retrospective covers.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine had captured two North Korean soldiers in Kursk Oblast, Russia. They were in healthy condition. According to the announcement, this was the first time such captives had been taken since North Korea entered the war. The two earlier North Korean prisoners of war had died of their injuries shortly after capture.
The detail about their condition was the core of the news. Survival set these captures apart from the earlier cases, and it meant the two men were in Ukrainian hands alive.
The wider setting
North Korea's backing for Russia did not begin with Kursk. According to background accounts, Pyongyang has supported Moscow since 2017, when it recognised the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. In July 2022 it recognised the Russia-backed, self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics, and Ukraine responded by severing diplomatic ties with North Korea.
Against that backdrop, the announcement placed North Korean personnel on the Kursk front and in Ukrainian custody. What would follow for the two men was not stated in the announcement.
