By Pavel Polityuk
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that Kiev is willing to hand over North Korean soldiers to their leader Kim Jong Un if he can facilitate their exchange with Ukrainians held captive in Russia.
“In addition to the first captured soldiers from North Korea, there will undoubtedly be more. It is only a matter of time before our forces succeed in capturing others,” Zelenskiy said on the social media platform X.
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Zelenskiy said Saturday that Ukraine has captured two North Koreans in Russia's Kursk region, the first time Ukraine has announced the capture of North Korean soldiers alive since their entry into the nearly three-year war last fall.
Ukrainian and Western estimates say around 11,000 troops from Russia's ally North Korea have been deployed to the Kursk region to support Moscow's forces. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
Zelenskiy has said Russian and North Korean forces suffered heavy losses.
“Ukraine is willing to hand over Kim Jong Un's soldiers to him if he can organize their exchange with our fighters held captive in Russia,” Zelenskiy said.
He posted a short video showing the interrogation of two men presented as North Korean soldiers. One of them lies on the bed with his hands bandaged, the other sits with a bandage around his jaw.
One of the men said through an interpreter that he did not know he was fighting Ukraine and had been told he was in training.
He said he hid in an air raid shelter during the offensive and was found a few days later. He said he would do so if ordered to return to North Korea, but that he was willing to stay in Ukraine if given the chance.
Reuters could not verify the video.
“One of them (soldiers) expressed a desire to stay in Ukraine, the other to return to Korea,” Zelenskiy said in a televised statement.
Zelenskiy said that other options may be available for North Korean soldiers who did not want to return home and that “those who express the desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in Korean will be given that opportunity . .”
Zelenskiy did not provide specific details.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, editing by Ros Russell and Bill Berkrot)
