SEOUL, Nov 2 — Two North Korean prisoners of war held in Ukraine have asked to resettle in South Korea, according to the human rights group Gyeore-eol Nation United.

The organisation told AFP that the prisoners made the request during an interview for a documentary filmed at an undisclosed facility in Kyiv on October 28, where they are being held after being captured by Ukrainian forces.

“They pleaded with the interviewer to promise she would return to bring them to the South,” said Gyeore-eol head Jang Se-yul, a North Korean defector himself.

Under South Korea’s constitution, all Koreans — including those from the North — are considered citizens, and Seoul has stated this applies to any North Korean troops captured in Ukraine.

Around 10,000 North Korean soldiers were reportedly sent to fight for Russia in 2024, with roughly 2,000 believed to have been killed, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies.

One of the two prisoners had previously expressed the same wish to a South Korean lawmaker during a visit in February, Jang said.

Sending them back to North Korea “would be essentially a death sentence”, the lawmaker added, noting that Pyongyang instructs its soldiers to kill themselves rather than be captured. — AFP