North Korean soldiers in Russia are no longer ghosts. Ukraine this weekend revealed the first concrete evidence of their presence in Russia on the Ukrainian front. In addition, South Korean intelligence (NIS) confirmed on Sunday January 12 that Ukraine had captured two of them in the Russian region of Kursk, and said it was participating in their interrogation alongside their Ukrainian intelligence (SBU) counterparts. The latter released photos on Saturday January 11 of these two North Korean soldiers taken prisoner, hospitalized and interrogated in kyiv.
“These are two soldiers who, although injured, survived and were transported to kyiv where they are speaking with SBU investigators”the Ukrainian security services, the Ukrainian president said on Telegram. “It was not an easy task: usually the Russians and other North Korean soldiers finish off their wounded and do everything to erase evidence of the participation of another state, North Korea, in the war against ‘Ukraine’he continued.
Extensive interrogations
“Since announcements of sending a contingent of at least 12,000 North Korean troops to the Russian front last October, there has been no real evidence of their presence,” analyzes Anton Sokolin, specialist in relations between North Korea and Russia at the NK News news agency based in Seoul. According to its sources, Ukrainian soldiers managed last week to “capture several North Korean soldiers, but some did not survive their wounds.”
Neither Russia nor North Korea reacted to this information. Neither country has so far confirmed the presence of North Korean soldiers on the Ukrainian front. “Moreover, there has been no official information in North Korea on the sending of these troops either,” explained Peter Ward, analyst on North Korea, Friday January 10 during a seminar organized by the Korea Risk agency in Seoul. ” Moreoverhe asserted, for reasons of national security, the families of these soldiers were sent to solitary confinement on the borders of North Korea so that nothing filtered into society. »
They didn’t know they were going to fight
The first testimonies of the two soldiers confirm the idea that they did not know where or for what purpose they were sent to Russia. According to the SBU, the prisoners speak neither English nor Russian, and exchanges are conducted in Korean with interpreters in cooperation with the South Korean intelligence services (NIS). According to the SBU, one of the soldiers claimed to be born in 2005, serving in the army since 2021, and said he was thinking of going to Russia to train, not fight.
This soldier was presented by the SBU as carrying, at the time of his capture, Russian military papers with the name of another person living in the republic of Tuva, in Siberia. According to the SBU, the other soldier had no documents on him. He is said to be a sniper born in 1999, in the army since 2016, and answered some questions in writing, due to the fact that he has an injured jaw.
Prisoners who will be exchanged for Ukrainian soldiers
It is not certain that they carry valuable information about the North Korean battalions in Russia. President Zelensky also said that kyiv has no plans to send these captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea, even though Seoul considers them citizens of the Republic of Korea. Ukraine instead plans to exchange them for Ukrainian prisoners of war held in Russia.
