Fatal lengths North Korean soldiers go to evade capture

Ukrainian military source says the troops fighting for Russia are prepared to kill themselves rather than being taken alive

- SAM KILEY

The North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Vladimir Putin’s military have shown ferocious commitment, brutality – and a determination to kill themselves rather than face capture, The Independent has been told.

A Ukrainian military source with direct knowledge of these troops has disclosed in brutal detail the extraordinary lengths to which they will go to prevent being caught. Since news of their presence in Russia emerged in October, just two North Korean soldiers have been captured alive amid varying claims from Ukraine of heavy losses among their ranks.

One of those was so determined not to be held as a prisoner of war that he tried to bite his own wrists after being wounded in the Kursk region, according to the senior military source in Sumy, northern Ukraine, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The other man, the source alleged, had charged into a concrete telegraph pole when he saw he was in danger of being captured.

“He didn’t realise, at first, that Ukrainian soldiers were closing in on him. When he realised that he was being captured by Ukrainians, he rushed at a concrete pillar [telegraph pole] and hit his head against that pillar with all his strength in the hope of killing himself.”

Named as Lee Jong Nam, a 25-year-old sergeant from Pyongyang, he was originally said to have been wounded in the jaw during fighting. He told his interrogators he was in a rifle reconnaissance platoon. He also said, multiple sources have confirmed, that he was one of a very small number of survivors of an attack launched on 8 January.

He allegedly said that all of the officers in his company were killed and he was the only survivor of a 20-strong platoon. The other North Korean was placed in Ukrainian custody, where he started to self-harm, the source said.