North Korean soldiers sent to Ukraine by Russia commit suicide to avoid capture, US reveals

US sources say North Korean soldiers sent to Ukraine by Russia are killing themselves to avoid capture.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that some of the soldiers would have taken their own lives rather than surrender to Ukrainian forces.

He said those suicides “probably occurred out of fear of reprisals against their families in North Korea if they were captured.”

South Korean intelligence also confirmed Friday that a North Korean soldier who was captured the previous day had died.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram statement on Friday that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers had died or been injured in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops seized territory earlier this year.

“The number of killed and wounded North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region already exceeds 3,000 people,” he said.

“Russia is simply eliminating them through attacks.” “Why the Koreans should fight for Putin is a question that no normal person on earth can answer.”

But since then, Russia has massed thousands of troops in a brutal counterattack.

However, Kirby cited a lower death toll among North Koreans, saying more than 1,000 soldiers died in the past week alone.

He said Russian and North Korean leaders viewed the North Koreans as expendable and ordered them to carry out “hopeless attacks on Ukraine’s defenses.”

Kirby noted that these soldiers appear to have been indoctrinated and insist on attacking even when it is clear that doing so would be unsuccessful.

“We also have reports of North Korean soldiers taking their own lives rather than surrendering to Ukrainian forces, likely out of fear of reprisals against their families in North Korea if they were captured,” Kirby said.

He warned that regardless of the equipment the Russian military provides to its troops, commanders will need body bags on a regular basis because “they will clearly need them.”

To supplement its counterattack, Moscow turned to its ally Pyongyang, which the U.S. estimates has an estimated 11,000 troops stationed in Ukraine.

Kirby said the North Koreans conducted “massive, dismounted attacks on Ukrainian positions in Kursk.”

Although this “human wave tactic” proved ineffective, he acknowledged that Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure made it difficult for Ukrainians to survive the harsh winter.

“These North Korean soldiers appear to be highly indoctrinated and are pushing for attacks even when it is clear that these attacks are pointless,” Kirby said.

The exact number of North Korean soldiers who killed themselves to avoid capture remains unclear.

Zelensky said Friday that while “several” North Korean soldiers had been captured, they were “severely wounded and could not be resuscitated,” suggesting that some of them may also have been killed by comrades.

Those troops were sent into battle with “minimal protection,” he said, and suffered “huge” losses.

It comes days after footage emerged on Telegram of a Ukrainian special operations team using kamikaze drones to attack a North Korean position in Kursk.

Dramatic video showed the drones circling troops as they tried to escape in an open field in Kurshchina. This video was shared by the special forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine earlier this week.

The crew said it killed 77 and wounded up to 40 North Korean soldiers during three days of fighting in the region.

North Korea and Russia have strengthened their military ties since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A landmark defense pact between Pyongyang and Moscow signed in June came into effect this month, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling it a “groundbreaking document.”

North Korean state media reported Friday that Putin sent a New Year’s message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in which he said “bilateral relations between our two countries have been strengthened following our talks in Pyongyang in June.”

Ukraine’s allies have described Pyongyang’s increasing involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine as a “dangerous expansion” of the conflict.