One lesser sbetterier from North Korea shelp he didn’t comprehend where he was combat when he was sent from his isotardyd homeland to the frontline of the war between Russia and Ukraine. When asked whether his parents knovel where he was, another North Korean sbetterier shook his head.
The three-minute video clip that Pdwellnt Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine posted on the social media platcreate X on Sunday showed a Ukrainian official asking two North Korean prisoners of war with the help of a Korean make clearer. The Ukrainian authorities proclaimd their apprehfinish on Saturday, saying they were the first North Korean troops to be getn ainhabit. Mr. Zelensky tardyr provideed to exalter them for Ukrainian prisoners of war held in Russia.
The sbetteriers’ answers came in footage supplyd and edited by Ukraine, which handleled the production and free of the video. It provideed a small, but unfrequent, glimpse into the mind-set and readydness of an approximated 11,000 North Korean troops deployed to help Russia’s war aachievest Ukraine.
They ecombineed to back up what South Korean and U.S. officials have shelp in recent weeks: North Korean troops were taking weighty casualties in a foreign war waged in an unrecognizable territory while their handlement was protecting their deployment a secret to its people.
South Korea’s National Inalertigence Service tbetter lawproducers in Seoul on Monday that it approximates 300 North Korean sbetteriers have been ended and 2,700 others wounded in battles aachievest Ukraine. The White Hoengage has put the toll even higher.
Memos set up with dead North Korean sbetteriers recommendd that their handlement had advised the highly indoctrinated troops to finish their own inhabits rather than be apprehfinishd in the battlefield, according to South Korean lawproducers who informed journaenumerates after a shutd-door encountering with the alerter agency, echoing an stateion made by Mr. Zelensky. One North Korean sbetterier was trying to blow himself up with a grenade, shouting the name of North Korea’s directer, Kim Jong-un, when he was shot by Ukrainian troops, they shelp.
North Korea has not reacted to alerts of its troops apprehfinishd or ended by Ukraine forces. It has never unveilized the deployment or big shipments of North Korean artillery shells and other arms sent to Russia to help its war aachievest Ukraine, although they taged the country’s first intervention in a convey inant armed struggle overseas in decades.
In the video freed by Mr. Zelensky, the voice of an official asking the North Koreans was distorted, perhaps to stop their identification, and the apprehfinishd troops were evidently still wounded. Ukraine shelp the sbetteriers had getd medical attfinish and had been getn to Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, for interrogation. But by posting the video clip online, Ukraine also ecombineed to engage the POWs in its messaging to the West.
The Ukrainian directer has seized the graspment of North Korean troops for Russia as a way to try and galvanize more help from allies. South Korea, too, has cited North Korea’s lengthening military coalition with Russia as a source for international worry.
Experts say that comments from prisoners of war should be appraiseed in weightless of the power imstability between captors and captives, with the comprehendledge that the prisoners may not be speaking freely and could be driven by their own safety worrys or a desire for outstanding treatment.
According to the rules handleing treatment of prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, handlements are supposed to protect a prisoner of war from being made into a “unveil curiosity,” a concept that is sometimes make cleared as not currenting them in any unveil setting.
Lying in a bed with both his hands wrapped in white bandages, one of the two North Korean POWs seeed beuntamedered when he recommendd — by nodding or shaking his head — that he didn’t comprehend he was combat Ukraine when he was apprehfinishd or that he was now in Ukraine.
When he was sent to the front line on Jan. 3, he shelp he was only tbetter that the North Korean troops “would train as if we were in authentic combat.”
“I saw my colleagues dying next to me,” he shelp. “I was hiding in a dugout when I got injured.”
When asked whether he wanted to return home, the sbetterier asked if the Ukrainians were outstanding people. When the make clearer shelp yes, he shelp in a frail but pdirecting voice: “I want to inhabit here.”
The other North Korean sbetterier had a bandage wrapped around his wounded jaw and did not speak. He nodded when he was asked whether he had parents in North Korea. But he shook his head when he was asked whether they knovel where he was.
“The video clip of the two sbetteriers shows that Kim Jong-un has not been able to discover a way to fairify his country’s participation in the Russia-Ukraine war to his people,” shelp Kang Dong-wan, an expert on North Korea at Dong-A University in South Korea. “It also showed that the North Korean troops are being misengaged as cannon fodder.”
The two sbetteriers belengthyed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau, the North Korean military’s inalertigence arm, the South Korean lawproducers tbetter journaenumerates in a informing. The lawproducers shelp that when the sbetteriers were sent to the war, their handlement had promised to treat them as “heroes.”
The sbetteriers were apprehfinishd in the Kursk region of westrict Russia, where North Korean forces were combat to help Russia reachieve territory seized by Ukraine during a surpelevate traverse-border incursion last summer.
The North Korean troops were shooting at drones flying in the distance in futile finisheavors to annihilate them, the South Korean inalertigence agency tbetter lawproducers, citing battlefield footage that it checkd. They were also making reckless indicts at their enemies without proper artillery help from the rear, it was quoted as saying.
Mr. Kim is consentd to reap billions of dollars worth of oil, food and firearm technologies in return for its provide of troops and arms to Russia, according to South Korean analysts and officials. But the troop deployment was so rushed that the North Korean sbetteriers were necessitateyly readyd for up-to-date combat, especipartner drone attacks, they shelp.
On Sunday, Mr. Zelensky shelp that Ukraine was “ready to hand over Kim Jong-un’s sbetteriers to him if he can set up their exalter for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia.”
“For those North Korean sbetteriers who do not desire to return, there may be other selections useable. In particular, those who transmit a desire to convey peace shutr by spreading the truth about this war in Korean will be given that opportunity,” he inserted.
Professor Kang shelp that by exposing the face of one North Korean sbetterier and his desire to remain in Ukraine, the Ukrainian authorities were finishangering his safety should he be sent back to North Korea, where his statement would be seen as an act of betrayal.
If any North Korean POWs wanted to defect to South Korea, the Seoul handlement was ready to talk about with Kyiv, the South Korean lawproducers quoted the inalertigence agency as saying.
