The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has said he is ready to hand over two North Korean soldiers captured by Kyiv in exchange for the return of prisoners of war held in Russia. But the future of the two injured men, who have been interrogated in their hospital beds, is far from certain.
Speaking after South Korea’s National Intelligence Service confirmed Ukraine’s claim that it had captured the two soldiers – part of a North Korean force estimated at 11,000 – Zelenskyy issued an important caveat.
“For those North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return, there may be other options available,” he said. “In particular, those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in Korean will be given that opportunity.”
In their interviews, shown in a clip accompanying Zelenskyy’s post, one of the two men said he wanted to return to North Korea, while the other initially said he wanted to remain in Ukraine, but later added he would return home “if required”.
One of the men, speaking to a Ukrainian official through an interpreter, claimed he did not know he was going to fight in a war with Ukraine, adding that his commanders had told him it was “just training”.
A South Korean MP on Monday said about 300 North Korean soldiers had been killed and 2,700 injured since their deployment late last year. “The deployment of North Korean troops to Russia has reportedly expanded to include the Kursk region, with estimates suggesting that casualties among North Korean forces have surpassed 3,000,” Lee Seong-kweun told reporters after a briefing from the South’s spy agency.
Much will depend on what, if anything, the men have told their Ukrainian captors in private. North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has not publicly stated that his soldiers are fighting alongside Russia as part of a mutual defence deal agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin last June.
South Korea’s government maintained a cautious stance on Monday. Koo Byoung-sam, a unification ministry spokesperson, said the fate of North Korean PoW “requires international law and other legal reviews, along with consultations with related countries”.
Lee, the lawmaker briefed by intelligence officials, said the spy agency’s position is that “according to our constitutional values, North Korean soldiers are included as our citizens, so the wishes of the captured North Korean soldiers are most important. Should they wish to defect [to South Korea], [the NIS] will actively consult with Russia and Ukraine”.
News of the North Koreans’ capture has prompted speculation in Seoul that they could join tens of thousands of North Koreans who have defected to South Korea since the end of the countries’ 1950-53 war. While the circumstances of their capture – in the midst of a conflict in a third country – are unprecedented, they are theoretically entitled to the same treatment as any other North Korean wishing to defect to the South.
Repatriation to North Korea could mean death or torture
According to South Korea’s constitution, “the territory of the Republic of Korea shall consist of the Korean peninsula and its adjacent islands”, which means the country legally considers all North Korean people as its citizens. Seoul has never officially recognised North Korea as a sovereign state, instead viewing it as a territory under an illegitimate regime. This position means South Korea has a legal obligation to protect citizens north of the demilitarised zone, and accept defectors, including soldiers.
The arrival in North Korea of two soldiers whose faces have been broadcast around the world, from a war in which the regime has not acknowledged its direct involvement, could place the men and their families in danger, as authorities seek to guarantee their silence. They could be questioned, too, over why they apparently failed to follow orders to avoid capture by blowing themselves up.
“Notably, memos found on deceased soldiers indicate that the North Korean authorities pressured them to commit suicide or self-detonate before capture,” Lee said.
Ethan Hee-Seok Shin, a legal analyst at Transitional Justice Working Group, a Seoul-based NGO, said it was “unclear if North Korea will even claim the two captured soldiers as their own, given Moscow and Pyongyang’s refusal to officially admit that North Korean forces have been deployed to Russia. At the same time, Russia could claim them as their own and hand them over to North Korea after they are traded with Ukrainian PoW”.
If Zelenskyy wants to avoid condemning the men to potential imprisonment, torture or even death back home, there are other options open to him.
“Repatriating the North Korean soldiers against their own free will, despite the well-known risk of their punishment as ‘traitors’ by a totalitarian dictatorship, goes against the humanitarian principle as well as Ukraine’s claim of fighting in defence of freedom and democracy,” Shin said. “The international community should urge Ukraine to ensure that the North Korean soldiers are not repatriated against their own free will.”
The South would have much to gain from receiving the soldiers. They could provide intelligence about the nature of the North’s involvement in the Ukraine war. Their transformation from elite soldiers serving the Kim dynasty to citizens of a free and democratic country would also be a major propaganda coup for Seoul.
Unlike citizen defectors, who spend long periods planning their escape, it is unlikely that the two demoralised young soldiers captured in Ukraine had ever considered living among their “enemies” south of the border. Now, though, making a new life in South Korea represents perhaps their best chance of survival.
