The WSJ report says that a team from Ukraine’s 8th Special Operations Forces (SSO) Regiment encountered a young wounded North Korean soldier in a forested area in Russia’s Kursk region earlier this month.
The team had been lying in wait for the enemy for several days having previously observed their movements in the area. On Jan. 9, according to the WSJ report, the Ukrainians made their way through a minefield and set up an ambush.
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When the DPRK squad appeared, the SSO troops engaged them, forcing the North Koreans to retreat. The SSO team then swept through the area and found the North Korean lying on the ground having been wounded in the leg and left behind by his comrades – an event which seems to have become an almost “standing operating procedure (SOP)” for Pyongyang’s forces.
On seeing the Ukrainian troops, the injured soldier produced a hand grenade which he waved in the air. There have been numerous reports that DPRK soldiers have been ordered not to surrender along with instances of some wounded soldiers being killed by their comrades to prevent their capture and others killing themselves rather than allowing themselves to be captured.
Part of the Ukrainian team’s remit had been to try and take a North Korean prisoner both for operational intelligence purposes but also to definitively prove that troops from Pyongyang were fighting for Russia. Despite reports from the Ukrainian armed forces that thousands of North Korean soldiers had been killed or injured, there had yet to be one taken prisoner.
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The team commander, a captain using the call sign “Green,” slowly approached the wounded man in an attempt to talk him down, initially using some phrases of Korean he had learned for this kind of situation, switching to Russian and using hand gestures to convey the Ukrainians’ intention to help the man.
Green told him “Brother, everything’s all right,” afterwards commenting: “We treated him like a child. We didn’t want him to hurt himself.” He and his team were also conscious that the grenade could take them out too.
Eventually the North Korean, who seemed to indicate he had been hit by a drone, relented, gave up the grenade and allowed the SSO soldiers to treat his wound and prepare to evacuate him.
As the SSO team began to leave the area with their captive “Armageddon started,” in Green’s words, as Russian artillery, no doubt warned of the presence of Ukrainian troops by the retreating North Koreans, started to bombard the area.
Fortunately, the team managed to take shelter in the basement of a nearby building before taking advantage of a pause in the barrage to transfer the prisoner to a vehicle that was able to evacuate him from the area.
This prisoner was one of two captured in the Kursk region as reported by Kyiv Post on Jan. 11. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky commended the troops for their roles taking the North Koreans prisoner and said they were receiving appropriate medical care, as required under international law.
He added that he had given directions that journalists should have “access to these prisoners. The world must see what is happening.”
A spokesperson for Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said that the capture of the prisoners was “irrefutable evidence of DPRK’s participation in Russia’s war against Ukraine,” despite denials by Pyongyang.
A South Korean official cited by the WSJ said Ukraine’s forces took great risks in trying to capture North Koreans on the battlefield, as they prefer death to captivity. DPRK troops having been ordered not to allow themselves to be captured and may blow themselves up with grenades or slit their own wrists. The source said that Russian and North Korea were doing everything they could to hide the number of North Koreans who are being killed and injured fighting Putin’s war.
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