Captured North Koreans Don’t Want Asylum in South Korea, Seoul Says

The two North Korean troops captured by Ukraine expressed no desire to seek asylum in South Korea, Seoul’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) spy agency said on Monday.

DPRK (North Korean) troops began aiding Moscow’s attempt to retake the Kursk region from Ukrainian control in late 2024, with Seoul claiming on Monday that around 300 have been killed alongside thousands wounded.

Of the two DPRK troops captured by Kyiv, one has previously voiced a desire to return to North Korea, while the other wished to stay in Ukraine, according to earlier interviews with the soldiers conducted in Korean and published by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The NIS told South Korean lawmakers in a closed-door briefing on Monday that it participated in the questioning of the two North Korean troops, where the two expressed no desire to defect, two lawmakers who attended the meeting told AP News.

Koo Byoung-sam, spokesperson for South Korea’s Unification Ministry, told AP News that even if the two had wished to defect, there is currently no legal basis to facilitate the process.

“There’s nothing we can say at the current stage,” Koo said, adding that it requires “legal reviews, including on international law, and consultations with related nations” if North Korean troops captured by Ukraine wish to be extradited to South Korea instead.

Zelensky said in a Sunday social media update that Kyiv is ready to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to exchange the captured North Koreans with Ukrainian troops under Russian captivity.

Other Topics of Interest

A Rapid Ceasefire in Ukraine Could Lead Trump into a Russian Trap

A ceasefire that leaves Ukraine unprotected would only provide a pause before a wider war. Washington and Kyiv must agree viable security guarantees before any negotiations with Putin begin.

Lee Seong-kweun, one of the lawmakers who attended the briefing, told AP News that North Korean troops struggle with drones and other elements of modern warfare, and they are often sent for “meat assaults” by Russian commanders without rear-fire support.

Lee, citing the briefing, said Pyongyang’s troops are also instructed to commit suicide to prevent capture, based on memos found on dead North Korean soldiers.

According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the agency in charge of the questioning, the first soldier was captured in the Kursk region on Jan. 9 by the 84th Tactical Group of Ukraine’s Special Operation Forces (SSO), and the second by Ukrainian paratroopers.

Kyiv captured its first North Korean troop in late December, but he soon succumbed to his injury.

The SBU said in its Saturday press release that both were transferred to Kyiv for “urgent investigative measures.”

One carried a Russian-issued military ID from the Russian republic of Tuva, while the other did not possess any documentation upon capture, the SBU said.

The possession of a Russian-issued ID is consistent with initial reports from when the North Korean troops’ deployment first became known. The IDs were believed to be a means of concealing North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The SBU said the two captured soldiers “do not speak Ukrainian, English, or Russian,” and the questioning was done “through Korean translators in cooperation with South Korean intelligence.”