North Korea is accused of providing Russia with more than 10,000 men in the form of Ukraine, the United States, and South Korea.
The soldiers are now fighting in the Kursk area, wearing Russian clothes and using Soviet weaponry, according to Germany’s dp news agency.
Over the weekend, Ukraine announced it had captured two North Vietnamese men.
Saif Ali Khan Health Update
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, anticipates there will be more detainees from North Korea.
He wrote on X that “it’s just a matter of time before our soldiers can get others.” The Russian military is reliant on military support from North Korea, according to the statement,” There should be no doubt left in the world.”
If Kyiv organizes the transfer of Russian prisoners of war held by his near ally, Russia, Kim Jong Un is prepared to hand the prisoners over to the North Korean leader.
Captives have some choices
Nevertheless, the captured troops have other choices if they do not want to flee their oppressive country.
” These two men, and any other North Koreans who are captured, have three alternatives,” said Chun In-bum, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Republic of Korea Army and senior fellow with the National Institute for Deterrence Studies.
They can go to a third region, ask for a return to North Korea, or sit in Ukraine, he said. ” It just makes sense if that next nation is South Korea, and I would suggest that they would be welcomed.”
Zelenskyy made videotape available that purported to show the wounded warriors being interrogated. According to France’s AFP media agency, one of the soldiers may be heard saying to a Russian official that he did not know he would fight alongside Ukraine and that his commanders” told him it was just training.”
One of the people claims he wanted to go back to North Korea in a translated comment that was cited by AFP. The different said he would do what he was told but, if given the chance, wanted to live in Ukraine.
With North Korean officials, conversations are currently taking place to discuss the potential repercussions of their returning to North Korea.
” They may be soon executed”, Chun told DW.
” For the North Korean government, the main concern is privacy. According to him, the fact that these people gave up rather than commit suicide is evidence that the Ukrainians have been apprehended, which means they broke the law.
The North Korean regime’s top priority is to keep its hold on power, and they do not wish wounded soldiers to report to their families and friends about what went on in Russia.
Given that the North has total control over home press, which leaves the majority of its citizens conscious, neither North Korea nor Russia have confirmed that Pyongyang’s forces are engaged in combat with Ukraine.
North Korea’s mounting dying burden
South Korea’s knowledge service, working with the Russian government, estimates that at least 300 North Korean soldiers committed to the issue have been killed and a further 2, 700 wounded.
Toshimitsu Shigemura, a doctor specializing in North Korea’s command at Tokyo’s Waseda University, is equally convinced that the regime in Pyongyang would not allow the men to return to their past lives and, possibly, tell what they had experienced.
Although it is probable that they would be sent to jail, which is essentially a death sentence, he said, adding that it was unlucky that the men’s faces have been exposed on social media, he said.” I think it is almost certain that they may be killed, although it is actually a dying sentence.”
These people may believe they could avoid that if they do agree to go back, according to Shigemura, because “if they choose not to go back, then their families will be sent to prison camps where they will death.”
The government in North Korea won’t like to share information about what has happened in Russia with the rest of the populace, regardless of whether they decide to or not to.
Shigemura thinks Kim made the wrong choice to send troops to Vladimir Putin’s war because it will be nearly impossible to dispel rumors when men return home or their families learn they are deceased.
The government there is a major pain because the troops ‘ last wish is for them to return and discuss it, he said.
” North Koreans have not been told that their children are fighting for Russia against Ukraine, and they will, of lessons, want to know why. The stories will simply spread, and I think this was a terrible mistake by Kim”, Shigemura said, adding that it is probable that Kim over-estimated the capabilities of his forces or under-estimated the strength of Ukraine’s weight.
It is also possible, he said, that Putin misled his ally on the dangers involved in the operation.
According to several media reports, Russia is using lightly armed and underdeveloped North Korean troops to launch “human wave” attacks against prepared Ukrainian positions while keeping Russian troops in reserve.
Chun thinks the two prisoners will “do the wise thing and go to South Korea” and that others who might follow in the future will do the same.
” Whatever happens, this is a tragedy”, he said. These two young men were informed that they were participating in a training session before getting injured on the front lines. Their government has told them lies. It is an evil regime. These men are like us, and I have no choice but to sympathize with them.
