▲ National Intelligence Service: “North Korean army begins troop movement for deployment to Russia”
On the 23rd (local time), Ukrainian authorities urged North Korean soldiers not to engage in combat in their country and to surrender.
According to the local media Kyiv Post, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense’s Intelligence Directorate (HUR) stated through a ‘surrender hotline’ set up against the Russian army, “Ukrainian prisoner camps are ready to accept all soldiers regardless of nationality, religion, or ideology.”
The Ukrainian army appealed, “To the People’s Army soldiers dispatched for Putin’s (Russian President) regime: do not die meaninglessly on foreign soil. Do not repeat the fate of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who couldn’t return home.”
They further stressed, “Surrender! Ukraine will provide shelter, food, and warmth,” claiming that thousands of surrendered Russian soldiers are currently receiving three warm meals a day and medical services as they wait for the end of the war.
Ukrainian authorities have been specifying the rumored deployment of North Korean troops since early this month and have urged the West to prepare countermeasures.
Kirill Budanov, head of the Intelligence Directorate, mentioned in an interview with the U.S. military media The War Zone (TWZ) the previous day, “We are expecting the first unit (of North Korean troops) to arrive in the Kursk direction tomorrow (23rd).”
The Economist weekly magazine claimed that North Korea agreed to send troops, including three generals and 500 officers, to support the Russian army.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in a speech the previous day that they have acquired information indicating that two brigades of North Korean soldiers, totaling 6,000, are under training.
(Photo provided by the National Intelligence Service, Yonhap News)