Captured North Korean soldiers plead not to return to South Korea
Photo: North Korean POWs ask not to be sent home (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Two prisoners of war from North Korea who fought on Russia’s side have asked to be transferred to South Korea, according to Deutsche Welle.
Two North Korean servicemen captured in Ukraine stated during an interview for a documentary film that they wish to go to South Korea.
The conversation took place on October 28 in Kyiv, where the POWs are being held under the control of the Ukrainian side.
The interview was coordinated by the South Korean human rights organization Gyeore-eol Nation United. According to the organization, one of the soldiers had previously made a similar request when he was visited in February by a representative of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea.
According to estimates by South Korean and Western intelligence services, about 10,000 North Korean soldiers may have been sent to Ukraine in 2024 to support Russian troops.
South Korean intelligence has also reported that North Korean soldiers are often ordered to commit suicide to avoid capture. In the event of injury, they blow themselves up with grenades.
In September, the South Korean intelligence service announced that about 2,000 North Korean soldiers sent to assist Russia were killed in combat in Ukraine.
Earlier, on January 11 of this year, it became known that Ukrainian defenders captured two North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region. One of them was captured on January 9.
It should be noted that RBC-Ukraine previously wrote about how the first North Korean soldiers were captured in the Kursk region.
Read more about how Ukrainian soldiers managed to capture them and what the Koreans themselves say about the war in the RBC-Ukraine report.
