Seoul intelligence agency says North Korean soldiers captured in Ukraine show no intention of defecting

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers on Monday that two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainian forces while fighting alongside Russian troops in Russia’s Kursk border region have not expressed a willingness to seek asylum in South Korea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media platform Zelensky added that “there may be other options” for North Korean soldiers who don’t want to go home, and his government released a video showing at least one captured soldier expressing a desire to stay in Ukraine.

During a closed briefing at South Korea’s National Assembly, the National Intelligence Service confirmed its involvement in Ukrainian authorities’ interrogations of North Korean soldiers. The agency said the soldiers had not yet requested to resettle in South Korea, according to two lawmakers who attended the meeting.

The agency said it was willing to discuss the matter with Ukrainian authorities if the soldiers did ultimately request travel to South Korea. About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to capitalist rival South Korea to avoid economic hardship and political repression at home, mostly since the late 1990s.

Koo Byung-sam, spokesman for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said providing asylum to North Korean soldiers requires “legal review, including international law, and consultations with relevant countries.”

“We have nothing to say at this stage,” Gu said.

Seoul’s intelligence agency believes about 300 North Korean soldiers were killed and 2,700 wounded in fighting with Ukrainian troops, the country’s first major conflict since the 1950-53 Korean War.

The agency assessed that North Korea was struggling to adapt to drones and other elements of modern warfare. Lee Seong Kweun, a lawmaker who attended the agency’s briefing, said they were further disadvantaged by the brutal tactics of Russian commanders, who threw them into offensive operations without providing rear fire support.

The agency said memos found on the dead North Korean soldiers indicated they were ordered to commit suicide before being captured, according to Lee. A North Korean soldier who faced the threat of capture by Ukrainian troops shouted “General Kim Jong Un” and tried to detonate a grenade before being shot dead, the agency said.

Zelensky confirmed the capture of the North Korean soldiers on Saturday, days after Ukraine, facing a slow Russian advance in the east, launched a new assault on Kursk to hold on to territory seized in a lightning invasion in August. – This was the first occupation of Russian territory since the World War.

Moscow’s counterattack has stranded and demoralized Ukrainian forces, left thousands dead and wounded, and retaken more than 40 percent of the Ukrainian-occupied 984 square kilometers (380 square miles) of Kursk.

Moon Seong Mook, a retired South Korean brigadier general, said the high death toll among North Korean soldiers was foreseeable because they were not adequately prepared to carry out unfamiliar missions in the terrain of the Kursk region, which is closely related to North Korea. The terrain is completely different.

Another shortcoming of North Korea, Moon said, is that they are not conducting an independent operation but are entering combat under the command of Russian commanders and may face unfamiliar tactics and communication problems because of the language barrier. He said the North Korean military might send out special surveillance teams to arrest or execute attempted deserters.

Moon Jae-in said: “The current battlefield environment, coupled with drones and other technologies, has created situations that North Korean soldiers have never encountered before.” “They are also deployed in large numbers in open areas with nowhere to hide, in order to recapture There is ongoing fighting in the area and the casualties appear to have come from this.”

Moon said decades of financial difficulties in North Korea, which forced many soldiers to grow their own food or work long hours in construction and other jobs to sustain the country’s economy, may also have affected the quality of the training they received at home.

Still, Seoul is concerned that North Korea’s involvement in the Ukraine crisis poses a significant threat to South Korea, as North Korean troops could gain significant combat experience and Russia could provide technology transfers to bolster North Korea’s nuclear weapons.