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.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he’s willing to hand over the soldiers to North Korea, if Kim Jong Un arranges for an exchange with Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia.

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”.

North Korea has instructed its soldiers fighting in Russia and Ukraine to commit suicide in the face of capture, and evidence suggests they're doing as told, according to South Korean and Ukrainian officials.

North Korean troops stationed in Russia’s Kursk region have reportedly been instructed to commit suicide rather than risk being captured.