If North Korean soldiers fighting in Russia-Ukraine war are captured ‘their families will be executed’

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A former North Korean sergeant has said Pyongyang troops fighting in Ukraine were told their families would be executed if they are captured alive.

"If the soldiers are captured and tell information to the enemy, their families will be punished, go to a political prison camp, or worse, they will be executed in front of the people," North Korean defector and researcher, Pak Yusung, told ABC News.

Ryu Seong-hyeon, who defected to South Korea in 2019, said few North Korean soldiers had been captured as a result.

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"Most soldiers will kill themselves before they're killed by the enemy, it's the biggest shame to be captured," Mr Seong-hyeon told ABC News. South Korean intelligence echoed this, claiming that North Korea ordered troops to kill themselves to avoid being captured alive.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent more than 11,000 soldiers to join Russian troops in November last year as Moscow’s casualties continue to mount.

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In early February Ukrainian and American officials said North Korean troops were pulled from the frontline due to losses, but just days later South Korea’s spy agency claimed additional troops were sent to Russia’s Kursk region.

Ukrainian forces captured the first two North Korean soldiers to be taken alive by Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in January.

According to South Korean intelligence, the pair were part of North Korea’s intelligence bureau.

One of the soldiers reportedly said he wanted to stay in Ukraine when asked if he wanted to go home in a roughly three-minute video released by Kyiv after the capture.

The Korean translator also asked: "Did you know you were fighting in a war against Ukraine?", to which the soldier shook his head.

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More than 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been injured or killed in Russia by early January 2025, according to Kyiv.

South Korean intelligence analysis of a combat video attributes these casualties to their “lack of modern warfare” and “useless” shooting of long-range drones.

The Ukraine-Russia war is now in its fourth year, but tentative hopes of peace talks have faltered after an explosive meeting between US president Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday.

Then on Monday night Mr Trump announced he would pause military aid to Kyiv in a major blow to Ukraine’s hopes of combating Mr Putin’s bloody invasion.