The paratroopers said the already-wounded North Korean ran "headfirst" into a concrete pillar when they tried to load him into a vehicle.

North Korea has not responded to reports of its troops captured or killed by Ukraine forces. It has never publicised the deployment or large shipments of North Korean artillery shells and other weapons sent to Russia to help its war against Ukraine, although they marked the country’s first intervention in a major armed conflict overseas in decades.

In a statement posted on X, Zelenskyy said he had instructed Ukraine's security service to allow journalists access to the captured soldiers.

Ukraine has captured two injured North Korean soldiers from the battlefield in Russia’s Kursk region and transferred them to Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.

National Intelligence Service says aware of battlefield situation through real-time cooperation with Security Service of Ukraine - Anadolu Ajansı

A South Korean lawmaker said Seoul's intelligence showed some 3,000 North Korean troops have been wounded or killed in Kursk.

South Korea’s spy agency has told lawmakers that two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces while fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region haven’t expressed a desi

That makes capture of the two North Koreans of enormous propaganda value to Ukraine. During video interrogations, published by Zelenskyy, the North Korean POWs said they were told they were being deployed to Russia for training and then fighting, and that they were issued fake Russian military IDs.

The Ukrainian leader's offer came hours after South Korea's spy agency confirmed that Kyiv had captured two North Korean soldiers.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this month that as many as 4,000 North Korean troops have been killed or wounded in recent weeks, with only two captured alive. Both men were wounded and transferred to custody in Kyiv, where Zelenskyy said they are being interrogated and treated for their injuries.

President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to broker a peace deal in Ukraine, but as he prepares to take office, peace seems as elusive as ever