A former sergeant from the North Korean military said few of Pyongyang’s soldiers were arrested for fighting against Ukraine because they were told that their families would be executed if they were alive.
“Most soldiers will commit suicide before being killed by the enemy, which is the greatest shame,” the former soldier Ryu Seong-Hyeon told ABC News.
RYU defected to South Korea in 2019, crossing the minefields of the demilitarized zone that separates the two North Koreans.
Photo: North Korean defector Ryu Seong-Hyeon is in Seoul, South Korea. (ABC News)
More: Ukraine claims more North Korean soldiers are killed as Zelenskyy offers prisoner exchange
According to the U.S. estimates, Pyongyang has deployed more than 12,000 soldiers to Russia to fight in the Ukrainian war, and experts claim that Russian troops also used North Korean weapons.
The Seoul National Intelligence Agency told lawmakers in a closed brief last week that an estimated 300 North Korean soldiers died in the fight and more than 2,700 were injured.
South Korea’s spy agency told reporters on Thursday that it had sent the front lines in the Kursk region of western Russia since early February to launch a surprise attack on the border in August last year after fighting against Ukrainian troops.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced earlier this month that his troops had captured two North Korean soldiers, the first time Ukraine has captured Pyongyang’s troops.
Photo: ABC News Foreign correspondent Britt Clennett talks with North Korean defectors Ryu Seong-Hyeon and Pak Yusung in Seoul, South Korea. (ABC News)
In a nearly three-minute video released by Ukraine in Ukraine after occupying two North Korean troops, one of the soldiers said he wanted to stay in Ukraine when asked if he wanted to return home. The Korean translator asked: “Did you know you are fighting in the war with Ukraine?” The soldier shook his head.
South Korean intelligence companies evaluated two soldiers at the North Korean military intelligence agency’s reconnaissance general’s office.
Photo: An undated handout photo released on January 11, 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s telegram account shows a soldier detained as a North Korean soldier by Ukrainian authorities at an undisclosed location. (v_zelenskiy_official/afp via Getty image)
More: South Korean intelligence officers say at least 100 North Korean soldiers were killed and 1,000 were injured in the Russian fight.
Another North Korean defector, Pak Yusung, said: “If soldiers are captured and informed to the enemy, their families will be punished, go to political prison camps, or worse, they will be executed before the people.”
“They just die like dogs”
North Korean defectors suggest that Pyongyang soldiers have been working to adapt to the modern battlefield, as videos released by Ukrainian troops appear to indicate that North Korean soldiers were being chased by attacked drones.
Ryu and Pak defected long before the Russian battle took place, but they said that, based on their experience, most soldiers would not see drones in their lives.
Photo: Pak Yusung, a North Korean defector in Seoul, South Korea. (ABC News)
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“Before they left, they didn’t have any practice to defend against drones or how to fight with Ukrainians, which is why they died like dogs,” Ryu said. “They have no skills, language or information.”
Pak and Ryu’s analysis is consistent with information issued by South Korea’s intelligence that said North Korea clearly directed soldiers to commit suicide to avoid being captured.
The Seoul-based spy agency also said that this attributes the “massive casualties” of North Korean soldiers to their “insufficient understanding of modern warfare”, including their “useless” behavior of long-range drone shooting, based on the agency’s analysis of recent combat videos.
Photo: ABC News Foreign correspondent Britt Clennett talks with North Korean defectors Ryu Seong-Hyeon and Pak Yusung in Seoul, South Korea. (ABC News)
Ryu, about 110 pounds. When he defected, he said that if he was still a North Korean soldier, he also wanted to go: “If I go to Ukraine, I can eat food, I can see another country.” He said there are also great economic incentives, and the soldiers did not know that their chances of death were so high.
Sell lies
Ryu and Pak said North Korean soldiers were lying. “I was told to hate the ‘wolf’ of America since I was a child and now I’m told that they finally killed the Americans,” the defector said.
Ryu said that in his experience with the South Korean Air Force, about 50% of pilots received only theoretical training and had no experience flying fighter jets.
Pak, a researcher at the North Korean Institute, said Kim Jong-il will accept key technologies in exchange for manpower, which should be a worrying sign for the world, and Kim also gained more real combat experience in the war against the peninsula.
“If Russia wins the war, it will give the power of a coalition of dictators,” Parker said.
Photo: ABC News Foreign reporter Britt Clennett, right, talks with North Korean defector Ryu Seong-Hyeon, Center and Pak Yusung in Seoul, South Korea. (ABC News)
More: North Korean soldiers sent to Russia
“This is just the beginning. If the Ukrainian war continues to move forward, Kim will continue to send soldiers to the soldiers. In North Korea, more people will begin to understand that this may be a threat to Kim Jong Il.”
Asked what they might do in a fear-controlled dictatorship, Parker said: “Think about it: Your son died on the battlefield rather than his own country.”
“You can’t send so many people to labor camps,” Ryu added.
Pak and his team of four North Korean defectors, the voice of North Korean youth, have been trying to prompt the international community to condemn Russia and North Korea in a voice, and we also call on the International Criminal Court to take responsibility for Kim Jong.
ABC News’s Karson Yiu contributed to the report.
Former Pyongyang soldiers told ABC News that initially appeared on ABCNews.go.com that families of captured North Korean troops would be executed.
