Zelenskyy: China must influence North Korea to prevent it from losing soldiers in battles in Europe
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on the leadership of China to warn North Korea against sending its troops to the war in Ukraine, emphasizing that the latter are suffering appalling losses.
"I held a meeting of the Staff [Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Staff Headquarters] today. […] Details of the Kursk region's developments – the North Korean military is involved in the fighting. They have many losses. A great deal. And we can see that the Russian military and the North Korean enforcers have no interest in the survival of these Koreans at all," he said in a Friday video address.
According to the head of state, Ukrainian soldiers managed to capture several seriously wounded North Korean soldiers, but could not resuscitate them.
"Everything is arranged in a way that makes it impossible for us to capture the Koreans as prisoners – their own people are executing them, there are such cases. And the Russians send them into assaults with minimal protection. Today we received reports on several soldiers from North Korea, our warriors managed to capture them. But they were seriously wounded and could not be resuscitated," he said.
Zelenskyy described such cases as "manifestations of the madness dictatorships are capable of."
"The Korean nation should not lose its people in the battles in Europe. And this can be influenced, particularly by Korea's neighbors, especially China. If China is sincere in its statements that the war should not escalate, it must exert appropriate pressure on Pyongyang," he said.