South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Monday that two North Korean soldiers who were captured by Ukrainian forces while fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region haven’t expressed a desire to seek asylum in South Korea.

There is mounting evidence from the battlefield, intelligence reports and testimonies of defectors that some North Korean soldiers are resorting to extreme measures as they support Russia's three-year war with Ukraine.

It comes after Ukraine released footage of two captured men, reportedly North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia.

Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a statement it has “confirmed that the Ukrainian military captured two North Korean soldiers on January 9 in the Kursk battlefield in Russia”.

Over 12,000 North Korean troops are estimated to be fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, the United Nations Security Council learned last week.

It was a month-long mission with one primary goal — capturing a North Korean soldier alive. One of the biggest obstacles facing the Ukrainian forces tasked with the objective while operating in Russia’s Kursk Oblast was overcoming the fanatical,

To avoid being hit by multiple drone attacks from the air, North Koreans have taken to forming a ‘human shield,’” says a Seoul-based specialist.

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