South Korea’s spy agency has told lawmakers that two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces while fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region haven’t expressed a desire to seek asylum in South Korea.

Casualties among North Koreans assisting Russia ‘have surpassed 3,000’, according to South Korea’s intelligence agency.

At least 300 North Korean soldiers were killed in combat with Ukraine, South Korea claimed on Monday. Some 2,700 others were injured, the South Korean National Intelligence Service told lawmakers, according to the Seoul-based Yonhap News.

The soldiers, reportedly from North Korea's elite Storm Corps, have apparently been ordered to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner.

The soldier claimed he was alone on the battlefield for three-to-five days before Ukrainian forces found him and gave him "an injection of some kind".