A South Korean soldier fighting on Ukraine’s side on Wednesday published an appeal to his North Korean “brothers” currently to the Russian Federation to fight on the side of the Kremlin to save their lives and desert, and promised North Koreans reaching Ukrainian lines would be given “new lives” in a democratic state.
The video announcement first made public on a longstanding pro-Ukraine information platform called InformNapalm showed a masked man with Asian facial features, in an unmarked uniform, standing in front of an armored HUMMV combat truck.
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“My brothers, you and I are from the same people, we have the same blood, we come from the same country. We are only divided by a border that you didn’t choose,” the soldier said in part.
Kyiv Post checks confirmed the Korean used in the appeal was typical of a native resident of South Korea, possibly the Seoul region. The kit out of the HUMMV in the video was like turreted, armored HUMMVs operated by the Ukrainian military.
The 90-second statement argued North Korean soldiers were fighting on Russia’s side for no reason and that, unless they quit the ranks of their unit, they would likely die as cannon fodder thrown against Ukrainian defenses.
Defection “to the south,” and soldiers surrendering to the Ukrainian forces, will be able to build a new life in freedom, “to be happy, protected and not to be afraid of tomorrow,” the soldier said. “We will not just receive you (as prisoners of war), we will help you start a new life. Here you will receive support, work, the chance to live with dignity, so that you could begin your life path anew.”
Why Russia is Losing Everywhere: Ukraine, Syria, and Beyond
Ukrainian military information platforms on Wednesday reported, citing Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) intelligence, that around 12,000 North Korean soldiers have deployed to Russia’s western Kursk region and are conducting pre-battle training.
A Ukraine Army General Staff (AGS) Wednesday statement identified two elite North Korean formations, the 92nd and 94th special forces brigades, as present in Kursk region and already attached to Russian units already in combat with Ukrainian forces.
AFU forces invaded Russia’s Kursk region in August, capturing a chunk of Russian territory roughly the size of Luxembourg. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered local defense units to wipe out the salient by mid-October, but that deadline was missed. In some battles, Russian units committed to counterattacks have suffered crushing losses.
The two North Korean special forces brigades likely see combat have been attached to three badly depleted Russian formations fighting in Kursk region for more than two months – the 22nd Motorized Rifle Regiment, and the 11th and 810th Marine Brigades, a Wednesday statement from military intelligence directorate (HUR) said.
Reportedly, North Korean soldiers assigned to Russia’s 11th Marine Brigade are complaining of insufficient food supplied to them by the Russian army. Kyiv Post could not independently confirm the HUR claim. News reports citing state intelligence in both Ukraine and South Korea said that the first North Korean troops embarked for service in Russia in mid-October and that leading echelons of that force had arrived in Russia’s western Kursk region by early November.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during Tuesday evening comments in a national television/video address said that North Korean troops had already suffered casualties, without stating the cause.
“We have a number of around 12,000 of them. There are already killed and injured. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin doesn’t want to lose the support of [Russian] society. So, instead of using Russians as cannon fodder, it will be North Korean soldiers as cannon fodder,” Zelensky said.
A salvo of between four to twelve Ukrainian long-range weapons, likely some of them UK-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles, on Nov. 20 struck a Kursk region monastery that, according to local social media and Ukrainian military intelligence reports, was being used as an underground Russian army headquarters. The Storm Shadow is an advanced weapon with a warhead designed to sink ships or penetrate deep underground before exploding.
Subsequent British and Ukrainian news reports said the Storm Shadow strike killed 18 Russian service members among them regional commander Lt. Gen. Valery Solodchuk, as well as an unspecified number of North Korean senior officers visiting the headquarters at the time. At least 33 officers and enlisted, among them three North Koreans of unspecified rank, were injured in those attacks, reports said.
North Korea is Russia’s closest ally in the Kremlin’s now 34-month-old invasion of Ukraine. Since intervening in the war on the Kremlin’s side Pyonyang has sent Moscow a reported 3.5 million artillery shells – a volume of ammunition roughly three times the total shell deliveries to Ukraine by its NATO nation allies.
Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defense treaty in June with terms for full-scale military cooperation including allowing troops from one country to fight alongside forces from the other signatory. Zelenskyi said that aside from artillery ammunition North Korea supplies Russia with rocket launchers and ballistic missiles used to bombard Ukrainian homes and businesses.
Zelensky on Monday repeated calls for Ukraine to be extended an offer to join NATO at an unspecified date in the future, to deter Russia and North Korea from attacking Ukraine.
However, reaction across the Atlantic Alliance has been lukewarm. Officials in the incoming White House administration have said the US should block Ukraine from NATO protection, to convince Russia and North Korea to stop attacking Ukraine.
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