Ukraine claims more North Korean soldiers killed as Zelenskyy offers prisoner swap

LONDON -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy predicted that his nation's forces would "undoubtedly" capture more North Korean troops, after sharing purported video of two prisoners of war detained after being wounded in fighting in Russia's western Kursk region.

"It's only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others," Zelenskyy said in a post to social media, accompanied with brief video interviews with two North Korean soldiers.

The short videos showed the two apparently wounded men giving brief answers to a Ukrainian interviewer via a translator.

One said he was told by commanders that he was being deployed as part of a training exercise, according to the translation. The prisoner said he entered combat on Jan. 3, in an unsuccessful assault with heavy casualties. He hid in a dugout until Jan. 5 when he said he was captured.

Neither man appeared to know they had been taken to Ukraine. One said he wished to return to North Korea, while the other said he hoped to remain in Ukraine.

ABC News could not immediately verify the videos.

U.S., Ukrainian and South Korean officials have estimated that Pyongyang has sent up to 12,000 soldiers to Russia to assist Moscow in retaking parts of Kursk Oblast seized by Ukrainian forces in a surprise August 2023 offensive.

The deployment of troops represented a new level of North Korean support for Russia's war, Pyongyang having previously supplied Moscow with significant amounts of ammunition and weapons including ballistic missiles.

Zelenskyy said Sunday there should be "no doubt left in the world that the Russian army is dependent on military assistance from North Korea."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, he added, "started three years ago with ultimatums to NATO and attempts to rewrite history, but now he cannot manage without military support from Pyongyang."

Zelenskyy said Kyiv is "ready to hand over Kim Jong Un's soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia."

"For those North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return, there may be other options available," he added. "In particular, those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in Korean will be given that opportunity."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the proposal for a prisoner swap when asked by reporters on Monday. "We cannot comment in any way, we do not know what is true there," Peskov said, as quoted by Russian media.

Ukraine's Special Operations Forces, meanwhile, said it killed another 17 North Korean soldiers in Kursk, defeating a daylong assault by Pyongyang's troops.

The SSO said that one North Korean soldier also attempted to "mislead" Ukrainian forces and "blow himself up with them on a grenade." The North Korean was killed by the blast with no Ukrainians hurt, the SSO reported.

Zelenskyy previously reported that more than 3,000 North Koreans had been killed or wounded fighting in Kursk, while U.S. estimates put the figure at several hundred.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Monday that the country's spy agency believes that at least 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 2,700 injured since being deployed to Russia.

Rep. Lee Seong-kweun, of the ruling People Power Party, told Yonhap that the National Intelligence Service shared the information with lawmakers during a closed-door meeting of the parliamentary intelligence committee.

The NIS attributed the "massive" rate of North Korean casualties to a "lack of understanding of modern warfare," Yonhap said. That included "useless" attempts to shoot down long-range drones.

The NIS also said the North Korean military has ordered soldiers to kill themselves to avoid capture by Ukrainian forces.