Zelenskiy says he’s ready to exchange captures North Korean soldiers for Ukrainians held in Russia

(Reuters) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday Kyiv is ready to hand over captured North Korean soldiers to their leader Kim Jong Un if he can facilitate their exchange for Ukrainians held captive in Russia.

“In addition to the first captured soldiers from North Korea, there will undoubtedly be more. It’s only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others,” Zelenskiy said on the social media platform X.

Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Ukraine had taken two North Koreans prisoner in Russia’s Kursk region, the first time Ukraine has announced the capture of North Korean soldiers alive since their entry into the nearly three-year-old war last autumn.

Ukrainian and Western assessments say that some 11,000 troops from Russia’s ally North Korea have been deployed in the Kursk region to support Moscow’s forces. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.

Zelenskiy has said Russian and North Korean forces had suffered heavy losses.

“Ukraine is ready to hand over Kim Jong Un’s soldiers to him if he can organise their exchange for our warriors who are being held captive in Russia,” Zelenskiy said.

He posted a short video showing the interrogation of two men who are presented as North Korean soldiers. One of them was shown lying on a bed with bandaged hands, the other was sitting with a bandage on his jaw.

One of the men said through an interpreter that he did not know he was fighting against Ukraine and had been told he was on a training exercise.

He said he hid in a shelter during the offensive and was found a couple of days later. He said that if he was ordered to return to North Korea, he would, but that he was ready to stay in Ukraine if given the chance.

“One of them (soldiers) expressed a desire to stay in Ukraine, the other to return to Korea,” Zelenskiy said in a televised statement.

Zelenskiy said that for North Korean soldiers who did not wish to return home, there may be other options available and “those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in the Korean (language) will be given that opportunity.”

Zelenskiy provided no specific details.

About 300 North Korean troops deployed to Russia have been killed with another 2,700 injured in combat against Ukrainian forces, with their rising number of casualties attributed to a lack of understanding of modern warfare and “the way Russia used the North Korean military”, a South Korean lawmaker briefed by the country’s spy agency said on Monday.

North Korean authorities appear to have called for its troops to commit suicide by blowing themselves up to evade capture, Lee Seong-kweun, a lawmaker on the South Korean parliament intelligence committee said citing the National Intelligence Service (NIS).

“It was also found in the memos carried by those killed that North Korean authorities emphasized self-destruction and suicide before capture, and that soldiers vaguely expect to join the Workers’ Party (of North Korea) or be pardoned,” Lee said.

Captured North Korean soldiers had not shown an intention to come to South Korea, though South Korea would cooperate with Ukraine if there was a request, Yonhap news agency also reported citing NIS.