South Korea slams North’s ‘inhumane’ troop deployment to Russia after newspaper interviews POWs

In a regular briefing at the Defense Ministry, spokesperson Jeon Ha-gyu also condemned the Kim Jong-un regime’s behavior and “strongly urged an immediate halt to additional troop deployments” to Russia.

The South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo published a pair of interviews with two North Korean POWs, surnamed Ri and Paek, on Wednesday and Thursday.

In Wednesday’s interview, Ri — who was captured by the Ukrainian military last month — said he was a member of the Reconnaissance General Bureau, an elite North Korean unit usually tasked with intelligence missions.

He said he left his homeland in early October last year, trained in Vladivostok in the Russian Far East, and was deployed to the battleground Kursk region of western Russia in mid-December.

In the interview, Ri expressed his intention to defect to South Korea.

“First, I plan to apply for refugee status and go to South Korea,” he said. “If I apply for refugee status, will they accept me?”

Ri went into battle thinking he was fighting South Korean soldiers, having been deceived by a North Korean security agent who said that Ukraine’s drone pilots “were all South Korean soldiers.”

One or two agents from North Korea’s Ministry of State Security were assigned to each battalion of about 500 soldiers to enforce ideological discipline, he said.

Since Ri could not contact home for three months before deploying to Russia, his parents didn’t even know he had been sent.

Asked if he had been ordered to blow himself up, he said that in the North Korean army, “being a prisoner is like being a traitor” and that he might have blown himself up if he had a grenade.

In Thursday’s interview, Paek — a 21-year-old rifleman sent to Russia as part of North Korea’s “Storm Corps” special forces unit last December — also said he was considering defecting to South Korea.

The South Korean government said Wednesday that it would accept all North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine who wished to defect.

“North Korean soldiers are our citizens according to the Constitution, and not only does respecting an individual’s free will regarding the repatriation of prisoners comply with international law and customary practices, but we also believe that no one should be returned to a place where they may face persecution against their will,” a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.

“The government will provide necessary protection and support per the basic principle of accepting all [defectors] upon their request to return to South Korea and per relevant laws and regulations.”

According to the South Korean Constitution, all North Koreans are South Korean citizens, regardless of where they live.

The Foreign Ministry added that it had conveyed this position to Ukraine and was engaged in discussions to bring POWs who wish to defect to South Korea.

However, the Foreign Ministry expressed concern with the Chosun Ilbo’s decision to print photos of the two POW’s faces.

“According to the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war should be treated humanely, and related media reports should also be conducted with caution,” the Foreign Ministry official said. “We express our concern and regret that the faces of the North Korean prisoners of war were exposed in the media, which could harm them and their families.”

Diplomats say the South Korean government already approaches the issue of North Korean prisoners of war with the same attitude it adopts with would-be defectors.

The ruling conservative People Power Party (PPP) also responded to the interview on Thursday.

Rep. Kwon Young-se, interim leader of the PPP, told an emergency committee meeting at the National Assembly on Thursday that the government should make “special efforts” to ensure that young North Korean POWs held in Ukraine can “defect safely” if they wish to do so.

“The Ukrainian government might even trade captured North Korean soldiers for Ukrainian soldiers captured by the Russians, but if they return to North Korea, the lives of these young men cannot be guaranteed,” Kwon warned. “North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine are also citizens of South Korea according to the Constitution. We must not send them to their deaths.”

He also strongly condemned the dispatch of troops by the Kim Jong-un regime. “North Korea must immediately withdraw its soldiers from Ukraine,” he said.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]