Captured North Koreans Describe Fighting for Russia in a War They Didn’t Understand
The only two North Korean soldiers caught alive by Ukraine said they were encouraged to blow themselves up to evade capture
Two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine knew nothing about the war they were sent to fight. They were handed Kalashnikov rifles and told they would be facing off against South Koreans who were aiding Ukraine.
Days later, they were fighting Ukrainians on the front lines in Russia’s Kursk region, they said.
They were instructed to evade capture at all costs—by blowing themselves up if they had to. That message was reinforced by North Korean secret police who conducted ideological sessions on the ground in Russia, stressing that surrender was tantamount to treason.
The indoctrination didn’t stop even under Ukrainian artillery fire. Military commanders read a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which some soldiers were told to transcribe by hand. “I really miss you comrades,” Kim said in the New Year’s greeting.
In interviews, the two North Koreans captured by Ukraine offered the most detailed pictures yet of how young soldiers dispatched by Kim’s regime to aid Russia are experiencing the war. The Wall Street Journal was the first Western outlet to speak with the men, who are being held at a facility in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Their accounts of the arc of their lives—from leaving home as militarized teenagers steeped in Kim’s personality cult to being flung into the vicious fight for Russian territory—offer a rare insight into the secretive world of North Korea and its armed forces, the regime’s paramount institution.
Days later, they were fighting Ukrainians on the front lines in Russia’s Kursk region, they said.
They were instructed to evade capture at all costs—by blowing themselves up if they had to. That message was reinforced by North Korean secret police who conducted ideological sessions on the ground in Russia, stressing that surrender was tantamount to treason.
The indoctrination didn’t stop even under Ukrainian artillery fire. Military commanders read a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which some soldiers were told to transcribe by hand. “I really miss you comrades,” Kim said in the New Year’s greeting.
In interviews, the two North Koreans captured by Ukraine offered the most detailed pictures yet of how young soldiers dispatched by Kim’s regime to aid Russia are experiencing the war. The Wall Street Journal was the first Western outlet to speak with the men, who are being held at a facility in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Their accounts of the arc of their lives—from leaving home as militarized teenagers steeped in Kim’s personality cult to being flung into the vicious fight for Russian territory—offer a rare insight into the secretive world of North Korea and its armed forces, the regime’s paramount institution.
