Kim's suicide squad pose a new danger in Ukraine war

‘Self-detonation and suicides: the reality about North Korea’

- JOHN GEDDIE JU-MIN PARK

After a battle in Russia's snowy region of Kursk this week, Ukrainian forces scoured the bodies of more than a dozen dead North Korean enemy soldiers.

Among them, they found one still alive. But as they approached, he detonated a grenade, blowing himself up, according to a description by Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces on Monday.

The forces said their soldiers escaped the blast uninjured.

It is among mounting evidence from the battlefield, intelligence reports and testimonies of defectors that some North Korean soldiers are resorting to extreme measures as they support Russia’s three-year war with Ukraine.

“Self-detonation and suicides: that’s the reality about North Korea,” said Kim, a 32-year-old former North Korean soldier who defected to the South in 2022, requesting he only be identified by his surname due to fears of reprisals against his family left in the North.

“These soldiers who left home for a fight there have been brainwashed and are truly ready to sacrifice themselves for Kim Jong Un,” he added, referring to the reclusive North Korean leader.

Kim, introduced to Reuters by Seoul-based human rights group NK Imprisonment Victims’ Family Association, said he had worked for North Korea’s military in Russia for about seven years up until 2021 on construction projects to earn foreign currency for the regime.