Ukraine is ready to return to North Korea the soldiers captured in Kursk. In return, Volodymyr Zelensky asks Kim Jong-un to intercede for the return of Ukrainian prisoners from Russia. The Ukrainian president launches the message that aims to transform the North Korean leader from an ally of Vladimir Putin into a ‘mediator’. Zelensky takes the initiative after the capture of two North Korean soldiers in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukrainian forces have partially occupied since the beginning of August.
The two Asian soldiers, apparently aged 19 and 27, were interrogated by the Ukrainian services: they thought they were involved in a training exercise and were unaware that they were participating in a war, judging by the answers they provided. North Korea has sent about 12,000 men to Russia: Kim’s soldiers, after a period of training, are used in the border region.
“After the first North Korean soldiers captured there will certainly be others”, says Zelensky in the usual message entrusted to social media. “It’s only a matter of time before our men take others prisoner. No one in the world should have any doubts: the Russian army depends on military assistance from North Korea,” says the Ukrainian president.
“Putin started 3 years ago with ultimatums to NATO and with attempts to rewrite history. Now he cannot go on without military assistance from Pyongyang,” he continues, opening up to an agreement with North Korea. “Ukraine is ready to hand over the North Korean soldiers to Kim Jong-un if he can arrange an exchange with our soldiers who are prisoners in Russia,” Zelensky says, proposing a triangulation.
The issue, in reality, could be decidedly complex and even the Ukrainian president foresees a ‘plan B’. The North Korean soldiers, in fact, could express their intention not to return to their homeland. In recent weeks, Zelensky has denounced the ”inhuman” practices adopted against the Asian soldiers: “The Russians burn the faces of the dead North Koreans to hide the traces of their presence”. Ukrainian Telegram channels have circulated written messages attributed to Pyongyang military personnel, which describe the mission in Russia as a kind of ‘atonement’.
“For the North Korean soldiers who do not want to return home there could be other solutions”, Zelensky hypothesizes. “In particular, the Koreans who show the desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in their language – says the Ukrainian president – will have this possibility”.
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