Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on China to influence North Korea regarding the deployment of its troops to fight on Moscow's side in Russia's war against Ukraine, DPA and Ukrinform reported, quoted by BTA.
"The Korean people should not lose their people in battles in Europe. And in this direction they could be influenced, first of all, by Korea's neighbors, in particular China," Zelensky said in his evening video address. "If China is sincere in its statements that the war should not escalate, it should exert the appropriate influence on Pyongyang." China is the isolated communist state's closest ally.
Moscow is using North Korean soldiers mainly in its attempts to retake the part of the Kursk region occupied by the Ukrainian army, Zelensky said.
North Korea has reportedly sent a 10,000-strong military contingent to help Moscow in its war against Kiev.
Yonhap News Agency reported that a captured North Korean soldier had died from wounds received in battle in Russia.
Zelensky said that several North Korean soldiers had been captured, but added that all had died from injuries sustained on the battlefield.
He accused Russia of providing these soldiers with "minimal protection", Agence France-Presse and Reuters reported.
"Several North Korean soldiers died today. Our soldiers managed to capture them. But they were very seriously injured and could not be saved," he said, condemning the "madness that dictatorships are capable of" by sending their soldiers to die "in battles in Europe."
"They are making many sacrifices. Many of them. And we see that the Russian army and North Korean supervisors are not at all interested in the survival of these Koreans," Zelensky added.
"Everything is being done to make it impossible for us to capture the Koreans. The Russians are sending them with minimal protection."
"More than a thousand" North Korean soldiers sent to Russia to fight in Ukraine have been killed or wounded in "hopeless" attacks in the Russian Kursk region, US President John Kirby's spokesman said today.