North Korean Prisoners of War Request Transfer to South Korea

Prisoners of war from North Korea, who were captured jointly by Ukrainian special forces and paratroopers in the Kursk region, are asking to be handed over to South Korea.

DW reported on this, citing the AFP news agency.

Two North Korean prisoners of war in Ukraine have appealed to be transferred to South Korea, AFP reported, referring to a South Korean human rights organization.

The request was made during the filming of a documentary, coordinated by South Korean human rights activists from Gyeore-eol Nation United.

Meanwhile, the outlet notes that this is not the first such request from them. One of the prisoners had earlier asked for permission to settle in South Korea when he was visited in February by a lawmaker from the Republic of Korea.

North Korean prisoners of war

At the beginning of 2025, soldiers of Tactical Group No. 84 of the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces, in cooperation with units of the Air Assault Forces, managed to capture two North Korean soldiers who were fighting on Russia’s side in the Kursk region.

This was not the first attempt to capture soldiers from that country, but at that time, North Korea had not yet officially acknowledged its participation in the war. Therefore, the Russians and North Koreans usually killed their own wounded and did everything possible to eliminate any evidence of another state’s involvement in the war against Ukraine.

According to the prisoners, they are servicemen of the Reconnaissance General Bureau (정찰총국) under the General Staff of the North Korean army. One of the prisoners, a 26-year-old soldier, is named Ri, and the other, a 21-year-old, is Paek. They served as a reconnaissance sniper and a rifleman, respectively.

According to Ri, he arrived in Vladivostok on October 10, 2024. Before that, he and his fellow soldiers spent about a month in Chagang Province, where they helped eliminate the aftermath of flooding.

“I entered combat on January 5. The first wave of troops suffered heavy losses due to drone strikes and artillery fire. We were counting on support from Russian artillery, but they fired at the enemy’s rear instead of covering us properly. This led to many casualties,” Ri added.

The prisoner shared that North Korean agents closely monitored the troops in Kursk, spreading false rumors that the drone operators were South Korean soldiers. After being wounded, he was afraid to move even at night, fearing the “devil drone,” as he called the night drones that the Russians refer to as “Baba Yaga.”

Almost immediately, South Korea stated that it was ready to accept the captured North Korean soldiers if they agreed to it. South Korea’s Constitution defines the entire Korean Peninsula as its territory, effectively recognizing all its inhabitants as South Korean citizens. However, at that time, none of the prisoners had yet expressed a desire to defect to the South.

It is estimated that the total losses of North Korean forces during offensive operations against Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region amount to more than 6,000 soldiers killed and wounded.