(Reuters) - Ukrainian forces have struck and destroyed a North Korean self-propelled howitzer on the eastern front of the nearly three-year-old war with Russia, Ukraine's military said on Tuesday.
A statement by the Khortytsia, or East, group of forces said it was the first time since the start of the conflict that a North Korean М-1978 Koksan howitzer had been hit by a Ukrainian drone.
"In Luhansk region, fighters of the 412th separate regiment of Nemesis drones struck a very rare M-1978 North Korean self-propelled artillery vehicle with a gun caliber of 170mm," the statement posted on Telegram said.
The post was accompanied by a video showing a military target being blown up, and said the Koksan had first been observed in the war in October 2024. Reuters could not independently confirm the report.
North Korea's military aid to Russia has included about 200 long-range artillery pieces and a significant amount of ammunition, South Korea's defence ministry told a parliament committee last week.
Luhansk region, mostly occupied by Russian forces, is one of four that Russia formally annexed in 2022, moves that Ukraine and its allies have not recognised.
Ukraine and Western military experts say up to 12,000 North Korean troops were deployed in southern Russia's Kursk region alongside Russian forces and have also reported military equipment from Pyongyang being used.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that Russia could send up to 3,000 more North Korean troops to Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces hold a chunk of territory more than six months after launching a cross-border incursion.
North Korean security agents are monitoring and controlling their country's troops in Kursk, telling them that the South Korean military are flying the drones attacking them, according to an interview with two North Korean prisoners of war captured in Ukraine reported by South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilboon on Wednesday.
South Korea's foreign ministry said on Wednesday that Seoul would provide the necessary protection and support in accordance with the basic principle of accepting all North Korean prisoners of war captured by Ukraine if they request to go to South Korea.
South Korea has already conveyed this position to Ukraine, the foreign ministry said.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski; Additional reporting by Joyce Lee in Seoul; Editing by Bill Berkrot and Gerry Doyle)
