After an intense battle with Russian forces this week, Ukrainian special forces were scouring dead bodies from the snowy western terrain of the Kursk region, where they discovered corpses of over a dozen North Korean enemy troops. Among them, they found one soldier was still alive.
As Ukrainian soldiers approached, a lone North Korean detonated his grenade to avoid capture, according to Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces. Kyiv officials said their soldiers were unharmed, but the suicide added to growing evidence that some North Korean soldiers are taking extreme measures while supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
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North Korean Troops: Avoiding Capture at All Costs
The incident highlights the lengths North Korean troops will go to avoid capture, seen as proof of Pyongyang and Moscow’s military alliance. These “brainwashed” soldiers, told that capture is treason, present a new challenge for Ukraine. Kim, a 32-year-old defector, explained that these soldiers are ready to sacrifice themselves for Kim Jong Un. Having worked in Russia on construction projects, Kim noted that for some North Korean soldiers, capture and return to Pyongyang is considered a fate worse than death.
“Becoming a prisoner of war means treason. Capturing you marks you as a traitor. Leave one last bullet, that’s what we are talking about in the military,” he said.
Lee Seong-kweun, a member of the South Korean parliament’s intelligence committee, confirmed Kim’s claims.Lee confirmed that memos from dead North Korean soldiers revealed that authorities encourage self-destruction before capture. He shared that one soldier facing capture by Ukraine shouted for Kim Jong Un and tried to detonate a grenade, but Ukrainian forces killed him.
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North Korea’s Troop Deployment to Support Russia in Ukraine
Ukrainian and Western assessments say Pyongyang has deployed some 11,000 soldiers to support Moscow’s forces in Russia’s western Kursk region, which Ukraine seized in a surprise incursion last year. According to Kyiv, Ukrainian forces have killed or injured more than 3,000 North Korean troops.
Moscow and Pyongyang initially dismissed reports about the North’s troop deployment as “fake news”. But Russian president Vladimir Putin in October did not deny that North Korean soldiers were currently in Russia and a North Korean official said any such deployment would be lawful.
This week, Ukraine released videos showing two captured soldiers. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said one captured North Korean soldier wanted to stay in Ukraine, while the other wished to return home. Zelensky offered to exchange the soldiers for Ukrainian POWs in Russia, if Kim Jong Un advocates for their freedom. He claimed Russian and North Korean troops kill wounded Pyongyang soldiers to prevent capture and shared photos of two men in holding cells, one with bandaged hands and the other with a head injury.