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“The Beginning of a New Life”: Two North Korean POWs Captured in Ukraine Seek Defection to South Korea
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Two North Korean soldiers captured in Ukraine while fighting for Russia have written a letter expressing their wish to defect to South Korea, according to a Seoul-based activist cited by Yonhap on December 24.
Jang Se-yul, head of an organization representing North Korean defectors in South Korea, said the two captives, both in their 20s, wrote the letter in October after meeting a South Korean documentary producer at a prisoner-of-war camp near Kyiv. The letter was delivered to Jang’s group earlier this month.
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“We’ve made up our mind to go to South Korea, thinking of those in South Korea as our parents and brothers,” the letter said. The soldiers added that people who told them their situation was “not a tragedy but the beginning of a new life” had given them hope and motivation, Yonhap wrote.
The captives also wrote that “a new dream and aspiration” had emerged thanks to support from people in the Republic of Korea, according to the letter.
The two North Korean soldiers drew international attention earlier this year after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said they had been captured by Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region while taking part in combat operations.
Jang said the letter confirms their intent to defect, noting that in February only one of the two had previously expressed such a wish during a meeting with a South Korean lawmaker, Yonhap reported.
Since October last year, North Korea has deployed an estimated 15,000 troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine, according to South Korean officials. The South Korean government has told Kyiv it is willing to accept the North Korean prisoners if their intentions to defect are formally confirmed, Yonhap reported.
Previously, it was reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly instructed North Korean troops deployed to Russia’s war in Ukraine to kill themselves with grenades rather than risk capture, according to Daily NK.
Sources told the outlet that North Korean units now undergo twice-weekly political indoctrination sessions where commanders glorify soldiers who blew themselves up on the battlefield. These sessions promote the idea that such actions demonstrate loyalty to Kim and surpass the bravery of Russian troops fighting alongside them.
