Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has offered to return to Pyongyang the two North Korean soldiers captured in Russia’s Kursk region in exchange for Ukrainians held by Russia as prisoners of war.
“Ukraine is ready to send Kim Jong-un soldiers if he can organize their exchange for our warriors who are being held prisoner in Russia,” Zelensky said this Sunday in a message published in English, Ukrainian and Korean on his official Twitter account. x.
“Along with the first captured North Korean soldiers, there will undoubtedly be more. It is only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture more,” said the Ukrainian leader, adding that “there should no longer be any doubts” about Moscow’s dependence on North Korean military assistance for its invasion of Ukraine.
Likewise, Zelensky noted that “there may be other options available” for captured North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return to their country of origin and who express their desire to “bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war.”
Video of two soldiers
In addition to this message, the president published a video in which the two captured and apparently injured North Korean soldiers appear being interrogated through an interpreter.
One of them, who appears lying on a cot with bandages on both hands, shakes his head when asked if he knows where he is at the moment and if he was aware that he was fighting against Ukraine. When asked what his superiors had told him about the operation in which he was participating, he stated that he was informed about “combat training.”
The soldier also explains that he was sent to the front on January 3 and that he was wounded and captured two days later while hiding in a shelter. He also says he wants to stay in Ukraine when asked if he would like to return to his country.
The other soldier, with a bandage on his jaw, responds affirmatively when asked if he wants to return to North Korea, although he indicates that his family has no knowledge of his current whereabouts.
According to a statement from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the soldiers were captured on January 9 and one of them was carrying a Russian military identity card issued in the name of another person, while the other was undocumented.
International media have not yet verified Ukraine’s version of the prisoners and their capture.
The Geneva Convention prohibits exposing prisoners of war to “public curiosity” in order to preserve their dignity and protect them during their captivity and release, which also covers the disclosure of recordings of interrogations, the senior legal advisor explained. of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Ramin Mahnad, in an article.
Zelensky has estimated North Korean casualties at 4,000 in the Russian region of Kursk, where according to kyiv’s security services 11,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to support Russian troops.
This Monday, the Kremlin declined to comment on Zelensky’s offer. “We cannot comment [sobre esta afirmación]”We don’t know what’s true about it,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters, according to AFP. ”We continue discussing the possibility of exchanges. We are interested in it. But the lives of each of our military prisoners are important to us. This work will continue.” Moscow has neither denied nor confirmed reports that thousands of North Korean soldiers were sent to the southwestern Kursk region to help Russia fight the Ukrainian incursion.
A North Korean soldier blows himself up after being captured, according to Ukraine
This Monday, the Special Operations Forces of the Ukrainian Army said on Telegram that one of the North Korean soldiers fighting with the Russian forces against Ukraine blew himself up by exploding a grenade when he was going to be captured.
This comes shortly after South Korean intelligence stated that the Pyongyang regime has instructed its military deployed in Russia to take their own lives in case of risk of capture by the enemy.
According to Ukrainian special forces, the North Korean soldier blew himself up after participating in a failed assault in which 17 other soldiers sent to Russia by Pyongyang fell dead under Ukrainian fire.
The soldier had survived and was found by Ukrainian special forces while they were clearing the area of enemy troops. The North Korean’s intention in detonating the grenade was to also kill those who were going to arrest him, but no Ukrainian soldier was injured, says the note published on Telegram.
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