North Korean soldiers not told they were going to war

Mark O'Neill February 23, 2025 19:45

North Korean soldiers sent by the government to fight Ukrainians were not told they were going to war and their parents do not know where they are. They were not prepared for drone warfare and were ordered to commit suicide rather than be captured.

This was the extraordinary testimony of the first North Korean soldier to give an interview since Pyongyang sent 12,000 soldiers to Russia last autumn to join Vladimir Putin’s army in fighting in the Kursk region of western Russia.

Neither Russia nor North Korea have acknowledged their presence. Moscow has given them fake identity papers that show them to be Russian citizens from its Far East region. They do not speak Russian.

But this falsehood was exposed in December when Ukrainian forces captured two North Korean soldiers. It has held them in captivity since. Last Friday, the Chosun Ilbo of Seoul published the first long interview any of the 12,000 has given. The two are Mr Ri, 26, a reconnaissance sniper who has been in the army for 10 years, and Mr Baek, a rifleman, in the army for four years.

Ri said he and his comrades left home for Russia in early October and trained for two months in Vladivostok, before arriving in Kursk in mid-December.

“I was told I was going (to Russia) for training. I had no idea I would be participating in combat. We first learnt in a staging area in Kursk that we would be fighting,” he said.

He said that his parents did not know where he was and that he had no contact with home for three months before he left. He has not seen them for 10 years. “I miss them so much. My duty station was in Sinchon, not far from Pyongyang. Even though it was so close (to home), I never went home during my military service. I spoke to my parents a lot over the phone but never saw them in person.”

Two officers from the Ministry of State Security in their unit told Ri and his comrades that all drone operators in the Ukrainian military were South Korean soldiers. So they believed that they were fighting South Koreans. This is false. Seoul has sent no soldiers to fight in combat in Ukraine.

Their commanders told them that, to prevent capture by the Ukrainians, they should commit suicide, such as with a grenade. “In our army, being captured is seen as betrayal.” The only reason that Ri and Baek were captured was that they were so seriously wounded that they could not take their own lives. They communicated with Russians through smartphone translation apps.

When the North Korean soldiers entered the battle, they had an enormous shock.

“I joined combat on January 5. The first wave of troops suffered heavy losses, due to drone strikes and artillery fire. We relied on Russian artillery support, but they fired behind enemy lines instead of covering us properly. That led to unnecessary casualties.

“We had no specific strategy for drone warfare. We never learnt how to take them down effectively. After the drones spotted us, my team leader and another soldier were shot. I fired back while trying to reach cover but got him. A bullet went through my arm, breaking the bone and shattered my jaw. I lost consciousness from blood loss.”

A ‘devil drone’ arrived after midnight, preventing him from retreating. “At 0300, Ukrainian forces came in armoured vehicles, firing machine guns and sending soldiers into our position. I was the only one who survived.”

As he tried to escape, he was captured. “I had no weapons. I could not carry anything heavy because of my injuries. If I had a grenade, maybe I would have tried to take my own life.”

He said that, in his group of eight, he was the only survivor. “When I saw the bodies of my comrades, many thoughts went through my head. Some blew themselves up, leaving nothing but headless or half-torn bodies. In the dead of winter, with the snow falling, they lay there … and the smell of blood still lingers with me.

“I never expected so many deaths. When I entered the battle, it was brutal. It was the first time seeing someone die up close. Seeing people right beside me get shot or blown apart by grenades. The ones I had just been talking to suddenly said nothing anymore. I did not see them being retrieved after the battle.

What about their parents? In North Korea, most families have only one or two children, meaning nearly all of them were only sons.

Asked about his future, Ri said that he originally wanted to go to university after his discharge – due later this year – and become a scientist, like many in his family. “I wanted to study but my family struggled a great deal. We were in such poor conditions, always in financial hardship, constantly suffering.”

Now that the Ukrainians have released a video of Ri and Baek in captivity, their government know that they have been captured. “I fear my parents will be forced to leave Pyongyang (as a punishment),” Ri said. “I want to go to South Korea.”

In an interview earlier this month, Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine's military intelligence, said North Korean troops had so far suffered about 4,000 casualties, including dead and wounded.

Their families might ask President Kim Jong-un: “why did our loved ones die? Were they fighting to defend the country?”

Mark O'Neill

A Hong Kong-based writer, teacher and speaker.