Two North Korean soldiers who had been captured by Ukraine while fighting for Russia were recently sent to South Korea, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said.
The South Korean government on Thursday declined to confirm the arrival of the North Korean prisoners of war, stating only that it had been in talks with Ukraine and other relevant groups. It explained that officials could not share details about the “timing or route” of the possible transfer to protect the safety of the two soldiers and their families in North Korea.
Mr. Zelensky revealed the transfer of the soldiers to South Korea during a speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday. He also sharply criticized North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong-un, for deploying troops on Russia’s behalf.
“The leader of North Korea sent his troops to Russia to support the weak points of the Russian army,” Mr. Zelensky said. “Why should Koreans give their lives in a war against Ukraine? Kim Jong-un uses them like currency.”
Mr. Zelensky did not provide details about the North Korean soldiers. But there have been only two known North Korean P.O.W.s held in Ukraine, and both Kyiv and Seoul have been discussing their future after the soldiers expressed their wish to defect to South Korea. Under its constitution, South Korea recognizes all North Koreans as its own citizens and has a legal obligation to accept defectors and refugees from the North.
The accounts of those soldiers during interrogation by Ukraine — as well as wartime diaries recovered from fallen North Korean soldiers — helped expose how Mr. Kim’s regime had systematically exploited its citizens for economic gain and geopolitical clout.
North Korea began supplying artillery shells and other ammunition to Russia in 2023, followed by a troop deployment in the fall of 2024. According to estimates by South Korean intelligence officials, a total of 16,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, helping Moscow retake the Kursk region from Ukrainian forces. Thousands of them are believed to have been killed or injured.
In return, South Korean officials said, Russia has provided North Korea with food, oil and advanced military technologies, easing Pyongyang’s economic isolation and upgrading its missile and weapons systems. This cooperation has effectively undermined United Nations sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. North Korea’s military has also gained critical, real-world experience in drone operations and modern warfare.
Moscow has officially expressed its gratitude to Pyongyang, swearing that it would never forget the sacrifices of the North Korean soldiers. Mr. Kim’s regime has weaponized the war dead for state propaganda, lionizing them as martyrs who chose to kill themselves by detonating hand grenades rather than be captured alive by the enemy. It has built a memorial for them and provided their families with new homes in Pyongyang.
In North Korea, ubiquitous propaganda slogans exhort citizens to transform themselves into “guns and bombs” to defend the regime, while state media heavily eulogizes the “spirit of self-detonation.” Under North Korea’s system of collective punishment, the relatives of those who fail to follow orders are found guilty by association and sent to labor camps.
During his U.N. speech, Mr. Zelensky cited the intense power that the state indoctrination held on North Korean troops.
“These guys are not easy to capture alive,” Mr. Zelensky said. “One of them, when he realized he was going to be taken prisoner, tried to kill himself and he was shocked that fate didn’t let him die. And this is how they raise people in the North.”
In January, South Korea’s MBC-TV broadcast an interview with the two soldiers by Kim Young-mi, a well-known South Korean documentary filmmaker. The two soldiers, whose identities were shielded, said that they were trained to see being captured alive as the ultimate act of treason.
“I feel uncomfortable to be alive,” one of the soldiers said. As an only child, the soldier said he was afraid the regime might have punished his parents because of his capture.
“Being a P.O.W. is equal to being a traitor,” he said. “I originally didn’t feel any reason to live.”
He expressed regret that he had lacked a hand grenade, a knife or other means to end his life as had some of his wounded comrades. He said that by the time he was surrounded by Ukrainian forces, he was drifting out of consciousness from severe blood loss. A bullet had pierced one of his arms and shattered his lower jaw.
The soldier added that he and his fellow soldiers had no idea they were bound for Russia until they boarded a ship and encountered Russian officials. In December 2024, they were thrust onto the front lines in Kursk, where they suffered devastating casualties from aerial drones, he said.
“So many of my comrades died in the land of Russia, and I wonder what happened to their remains,” he said.
The second soldier suffered severe injuries to his left leg and lay in the field for four days before Ukrainian forces located him. He described his survival in the P.O.W. camp as a “wretched fate.”
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