President Zelensky Ready To Exchange Russian Detained Ukrainian Prisoners With North Korean Troops

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. (Source: President.gov.ua)

JAKARTA - President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday Kyiv was ready to hand over the captured North Korean army (North Korea) to their leader Kim Jong-un, if he could facilitate their exchange with Ukrainians in Russia.

"In addition to the first soldiers arrested from North Korea, there will no doubt be more. It's only a matter of time before our troops manage to catch the others," President Zelensky tweeted on social media platform X.

Earlier, President Zelensky on Saturday revealed that Ukraine had detained two North Korean troops in Russia's Kursk region, Ukraine for the first time announcing the arrest of Pyongyang soldiers alive since they entered the war that lasted nearly three years last fall.

Assessment of Ukraine and the West said about 11,000 troops from Russia's ally North Korea had been deployed in the Kursk region to support Moscow forces. Russia does not justify or deny their presence.

President Zelensky said Russian and North Korean troops had suffered heavy losses.

"Ukraine is ready to hand over Kim Jong-un's army to him if he can arrange their exchange with our soldiers in Russia," President Zelensky said.

He uploaded a short video showing the interrogation of two people who were presented as North Korean soldiers. One of them was seen lying in bed with his hands bandaged, the other sitting in bandages in his jaw.

One of them said through an interpreter he did not know that he was at war against Ukraine and had been told he was in training.

He said he was hiding in a shelter during the attack and was found a few days later. He said if he was ordered to return to North Korea, he would, but he was ready to stay in Ukraine if given the opportunity.

Reuters was unable to verify the video.

"One of them (the army) expressed the desire to stay in Ukraine, the other wants to return to Korea," President Zelensky said in a televised statement.

President Zelensky said that for North Korean soldiers who do not want to return home, there may be other options available and " THOSE who express their desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in Korean will be given the opportunity."

However, President Zelensky did not provide specific details.

About 300 North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia have been killed and 2,700 others injured in fighting against Ukrainian forces, with the increasing number of casualties caused by a lack of understanding of modern warfare and "the Russian way of using the North Korean military", a South Korean lawmaker briefed by the country's spy agency said on Monday.

North Korean authorities appear to have asked their troops to commit suicide by detonating themselves to avoid arrests, Lee Seong-kweun, a lawmaker on South Korea's parliamentary intelligence committee, said he quoted the National Intelligence Agency (NIS) as saying.

"It was also found in a memo brought by those killed, North Korean authorities stressed suicide and suicide before being arrested, and soldiers hope to join the Labor Party (North Korea) or be forgiven," Lee said.

The arrested North Korean soldiers showed no intention of coming to South Korea, although South Korea would cooperate with Ukraine if a request was made, Yonhap news agency also reported citing NIS.