SEOUL: Around 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 2,700 wounded while fighting in Russia´s war against Ukraine, a South Korean lawmaker said on Monday, citing information from Seoul´s spy agency.

Seoul has previously claimed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent more than 10,000 soldiers as “cannon fodder” to help Moscow fight Kyiv, in return for Russian technical assistance for Pyongyang´s heavily sanctioned weapons and satellite programmes.

Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had captured two North Korean soldiers, releasing video of the injured combatants being interrogated and raising the possibility of a prisoner swap for captured Ukrainian troops.

“The deployment of North Korean troops to Russia has reportedly expanded to include the Kursk region, with estimates suggesting that casualties among North Korean forces have surpassed 3,000,” lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters after a briefing from the spy agency.

This includes “approximately 300 deaths and 2,700 injuries,” Lee said, after a briefing from Seoul´s National Intelligence Service. The soldiers, reportedly from North Korea´s elite Storm Corps, have been ordered to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner, Lee said. “Notably, memos found on deceased soldiers indicate that the North Korean authorities pressured them to commit suicide or self-detonate before capture,” he said.