A South Korean lawmaker yesterday said that a North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine wanted to live a “normal life” in the South, after Seoul vowed to offer citizenship to Pyongyang’s troops.
In January, the South Korean National Intelligence Service confirmed that the Ukrainian military had captured two of the estimated 10,000 North Korean soldiers sent by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to fight for Moscow in their war against Kyiv.
South Korean Representative Yu Yong-weon said that he met the two soldiers, who remain in Ukrainian custody at a detention facility in an undisclosed location, after submitting a request to Kyiv.
Photo: AFP / Telegram / V_Zelenskiy_official
“The moment I faced the two young prisoners, I was overwhelmed with emotions — compassion, sympathy and an innate sense of empathy,” Yu told a news conference.
One of the soldiers told him he wanted to move to South Korea so that he could eventually reunite with his parents, he said.
Yu also said that the soldier asked if he would be able to “live as he wish with the rights I hope for” if he goes to South Korea and asked if he would be able to “have a home and start a family there.”
Under South Korea’s constitution, all Koreans, including those who live in the North, are considered citizens, and officials last month reaffirmed that would apply to any troops captured in Ukraine.
Sending the soldiers back to the North would be “essentially a death sentence,” Yu said.
North Korean troops have been instructed to kill themselves rather than be captured, South Korean intelligence has said, and Yu said the soldiers told him they had witnessed multiple suicides by grenade by injured comrades.
“Even as prisoners of war, North Korean soldiers are constitutionally recognized as South Korean citizens and must be protected accordingly,” Yu said.
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