Putin’s North Korean “slave soldiers” speak out

In the war in Ukraine, 300 North Korean soldiers died and a few were captured. We gradually discover the conditions under which they carry out their military service in Ukraine. They don’t seem to be well informed.

Felix Lill, Tokyo / ch media

The North Korean soldier that the Ukrainian military had just captured did not seem to have the slightest idea of ​​what was happening. Wounded in combat, he was later captured with another wounded comrade. He wouldn’t have even realized he was fighting in Ukraine.

At least, that’s what the young man with bandaged hands says in a video posted by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. He would no longer want to return to his country.

In this war, on the Russian side, there is no longer any doubt that the North Korean personnel sent to the war zone in 2024 include, at least in part, soldiers. The North Korean government – ​​which has also long supplied weapons and accessories to Russia – has sent between 11,000 and 12,000 people to Russia. Many of them clearly know nothing about their work.

According to the intelligence services of South Korea – which has been formally in a state of war with North Korea since the Korean War and the signing of the 1953 armistice – 300 North Korean soldiers have already lost their lives and 2,700 would have been injured. This weekend it became known that, for the first time, two soldiers had been captured by the Ukrainian army.

Military service as atonement

Based on interrogations, found objects and other clues, a picture is gradually emerging as to who the North Koreans were and how they arrived at the front of a war that was escalating. takes place thousands of kilometers from home. In the notebook of a deceased soldier, for example, we see a drawing which describes the shooting down of drones, with the following remark:

The “bait” to stop the drone are apparently soldiers like him and his comrades.

North Korea also likely encourages its soldiers to commit suicide if they find themselves in a desperate situation rather than being captured by the enemy. Notes also showed that the North Korean fighters were partly prisoners. They speak of “sins” and “betrayal” of love for the Party, which must now be expiated on the front. In the one-party state of North Korea, this seems like a big crime.

North Korea apparently told its soldiers they were participating in a “military exercise.” In Russia, they then received false identity cards pretending to be Russian citizens.

“Military exercise” is once again a common expression in North Korea, says Vladimir Tikhonov, a professor of Korean studies at the University of Oslo and an expert on North Korea. Until the 1990s, North Korean soldiers regularly carried out reconnaissance missions to spy on South Korea. “There too, we always used the term ‘special exercise’,” continues Tikhonov.

But in the case of Ukraine, the North Koreans clearly did not understand the significance of this expression, Tikhonov continues. On the other hand, South Korean secret services indicate that this message is arriving in North Korea. We would now speak in North Korea of ​​“slave soldiers”.

This would pose no problem for the Kim Jong Un regime, as long as the state benefits. As long as money flows in, technologies are transferred and the military gains experience in waging modern warfare, everything is fine, according to Tikhonov. From Pyongyang’s perspective, engaging in the war in Ukraine is effectively seen as a training mission in the event of a new outbreak of war with South Korea. “This experience and new equipment from Russia will instead strengthen North Korea.”

Will Trump and Kim soon meet?

Meanwhile, South Korean intelligence services believe that Donald Trump, who will begin his second term as US president on January 20, will soon seek talks with North Korean dictator Kim Jong un. During his first term, from 2017 to 2021, Trump had already met with Kim and tried to obtain an agreement on the denuclearization of North Korea, but he had failed.

At the time, North Korea was even more isolated on the international scene than it is today. Kim Jong Un’s willingness to begin new talks with Trump should therefore largely depend on the progress of his “military exercise” in Ukraine.

Translated and adapted from German by Léa Krejci.

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