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North Korean military In the Kursk region, commanders forbid surrendering and say that they are resisting the military from South Korea. This is reported in interview one of the two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukrainians told the South Korean publication Chosun Ilbo.
A 26-year-old man named Ri said he was a private, a reconnaissance sniper, had been serving in the army since 2015 and was due to be demobilized soon. Before leaving his homeland, he did not know about being sent to the war against Ukraine, because he was told that he was being sent to Russia to study as a foreign student.
"I was told I was going there as a student to study. I had no idea I would be involved in fighting," Ri claims.
According to him, he left the DPRK with a group of his comrades on October 10, was in a military camp near Vladivostok, and around mid-December their unit was transferred to the Kursk region to the front line, where they were informed of the true purpose of their stay in the Russian Federation. At that time, he counted about 2500 soldiers from the DPRK.
The prisoner noted that the rank and file soldiers had almost no contact with the Russians from neighboring units, and all issues related to their stay at the front were handled by officers from the DPRK.
Ri entered combat for the first and last time on the morning of January 5, when he and his unit of about 60 soldiers attacked Ukrainian positions. “Our company launched a frontal assault, but suffered heavy losses from drone strikes and artillery fire. We were counting on the support of Russian artillery, but they did not cover us properly and there were many casualties,” he noted.
During the battle, a group of North Koreans, including Ri, was attacked by a drone, all of whom died, he received a serious wound to the arm and jaw, lost consciousness and only regained consciousness late in the evening. He was found by five soldiers from another North Korean unit, bandaged up and tried to get him out of the battlefield, but they were also hit by a drone and all but him died.
Ri tried to reach his own people on his own, but was captured by Ukrainians. “If I had a grenade, I might have tried to commit suicide, because in our army, being captured is considered treason,” the North Korean prisoner noted.
He said that in each battalion of 500 soldiers there was one or two officers from the DPRK Ministry of State Security who controlled the soldiers and conducted their ideological training. In particular, before the battle they assured that all UAV operators in the Ukrainian army were South Korean soldiers.
According to Ri, the North Koreans believed this and believed they were fighting not only Ukrainian forces but also South Korean troops. “This made us fight even more desperately,” he added.
The prisoner also confirmed the heavy losses of the North Korean military contingent in the Kursk region. "Almost everyone I came with was killed. All the men who came with me died. In my unit, all my comrades died. There was no one left," Ri said.
He added that he has no intention of returning home and would like to go to South Korea and study at university after his captivity.
