KYIV: Ukraine said on Saturday (Jan 11) that investigators were questioning two wounded North Korean soldiers after they were captured in Russia's Kursk region, saying they provided "indisputable evidence" that North Koreans were fighting for Moscow.

It is not the first time that Kyiv has claimed the capture of North Korean soldiers during its Kursk incursion but it has not reported being able to question any before.

In December it said it took several captive but they died from serious wounds.

"Our soldiers captured North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region. These are two soldiers who, although wounded, survived and were brought to Kyiv, and are talking to SBU investigators," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

The SBU security service gave some details of the men's interrogation, saying both described themselves as experienced soldiers and one said he had been sent to Russia for training, not to fight.

But Ukraine has not provided any evidence that the men are North Korean.

In footage released by the SBU, two men with Asian features are shown in hospital bunks, one with bandaged hands and the other with a bandaged jaw. A doctor at the detention centre says the second man also has a broken leg.

"WORLD NEEDS TO KNOW"

Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russia's military, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine mounted a shock incursion in August last year.

Zelenskyy had said in late December that Ukraine had captured several seriously wounded North Korean soldiers who later died.

He said on Saturday that it was difficult to capture North Koreans fighting because "Russians and other North Korean soldiers finish off their wounded and do everything to prevent evidence of the participation of another state, North Korea, in the war against Ukraine".

He said he would provide media access to the prisoners of war because "the world needs to know what is happening".

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X that the "first North Korean prisoners of war are now in Kyiv", calling them "regular (North Korean) troops, not mercenaries".

"We need maximum pressure against regimes in Moscow and Pyongyang," he wrote.

The men do not speak Russian or Ukrainian and communication is through Korean interpreters, the SBU said, adding that this was "in cooperation" with South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS).

The SBU video does not show the...