SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s secret agent company informed lawmakers on Monday that two North Korean squaddies who have been captured via Ukrainian forces whilst preventing along Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk border area haven’t expressed a need to hunt asylum in South Korea.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated he’s keen handy over the warriors to North Korea if the rustic’s authoritarian chief, Kim Jong Un, arranges for an alternate with Ukrainian prisoners of battle in Russia. Zelenskyy stated some of the North Korean squaddies needs to stick in Ukraine whilst the opposite desires to go back to his nation, which was once in step with interview movies launched via his executive.
“If Kim Jong Un even recalls those electorate of his and is able to organizing an alternate for our warriors being held in Russia, we’re in a position to switch such squaddies. Certainly there will probably be extra POWs from North Korea,” Zelenskyy stated in an cope with overdue Sunday. He stated in a separate posting at the social media platform X that “there is also different choices” for North Korean prisoners who don’t need to return.
READ MORE: North Korean troops struggling heavy battlefield losses in Russia, Ukrainian intelligence says
In a closed-door briefing at South Korea’s Nationwide Meeting, the Nationwide Intelligence Carrier showed its participation within the wondering of the North Korean squaddies via Ukrainian government. The company stated the warriors haven’t expressed a request to resettle in South Korea, in keeping with two lawmakers who attended the assembly.
The company stated it was once keen to talk about the subject with Ukrainian government if the warriors sooner or later do ask to visit South Korea. About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to capitalist rival South Korea to steer clear of financial hardship and political suppression at house, most commonly for the reason that overdue Nineties.
Koo Byoungsam, spokesperson of South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, stated facilitating the asylum of the North Korean squaddies will require “prison opinions, together with on global legislation, and consultations with comparable international locations.”
“There’s not anything we will say on the present level,” Koo stated.
Seoul says about 300 North Korean troops killed in battle
Seoul’s secret agent company believes that about 300 North Korean squaddies have died and every other 2,700 had been injured whilst preventing towards Ukrainian forces, in what represents North Korea’s first involvement in large-scale war for the reason that 1950-53 Korean Warfare.
The company assessed that the North Koreans are suffering to conform to drones and different parts of recent struggle. They’re additional deprived via the crude ways in their Russian commanders, who’ve thrown them in attack campaigns with out offering rear-fire reinforce, in keeping with Lee Seong Kweun, a lawmaker who attended the company’s briefing.
The company stated memos discovered on lifeless North Korean squaddies indicated that that they had been ordered to dedicate suicide sooner than being captured, in keeping with Lee. The company stated one North Korean soldier, going through the specter of being captured via Ukrainian forces, shouted “Common Kim Jong Un” and attempted to detonate a hand grenade sooner than he was once shot and killed.
Zelenskyy showed the seize of the North Korean squaddies on Saturday, days after Ukraine, going through a sluggish Russian onslaught within the east, started urgent new assaults in Kursk to retain floor captured in a lightning incursion in August — the primary profession of Russian territory since International Warfare II.
Moscow’s counterattack has left Ukrainian forces outstretched and demoralized, killing and wounding 1000’s and retaking greater than 40% of the 984 sq. kilometers (380 sq. miles) of Kursk that Ukraine had seized.
North Koreans battle to conform to Kursk terrain, fashionable struggle
Moon Seong Mook, a retired South Korean brigadier normal, stated the top demise toll for North Korean squaddies was once predictable, as they wouldn’t have been sufficiently ready for an unfamiliar venture within the terrain of the Kursk area, which is massively other from North Korea’s mountainous panorama.
Every other downside for the North Koreans is that they aren’t undertaking unbiased operations however are being thrust into battle below Russian commanders, most likely suffering with unfamiliar ways and communique problems because of language obstacles, stated Moon, who has taken phase in a lot of army talks with North Korea. The North Korean forces may well be working particular surveillance groups to arrest or execute tried deserters, he stated.
“The present battlefield setting, mixed with drones and different applied sciences, have created eventualities North Korean squaddies have by no means encountered sooner than,” Moon stated. “They’re additionally being deployed in vast numbers in wide-open fields, the place there is not any position to cover, in steady battles to retake the world, and that appears to be the place the casualties are coming from.”
North Korea’s decadeslong monetary troubles, that have compelled many squaddies to develop their very own meals or spend lengthy hours deployed in development and different paintings to maintain the nationwide economic system, may just even have impacted the standard of coaching they obtain at house, Moon stated.
Nonetheless, there are considerations in Seoul that North Korea’s participation within the Ukraine disaster poses a vital danger to South Korea, as North Korean forces would possibly acquire the most important battle enjoy and Russia would possibly supply era transfers that might support North Korea’s nuclear-armed military.
Related Press creator Samya Kullab in Kyiv, Ukraine contributed to this document.
