Reuters
The United States and Ukraine say North Korean troops are fighting Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region.
What Haneul remembers most about his time in the North Korean army is the persistent, nagging hunger. He lost 20 pounds during his first month of service, thanks to a diet of cracked corn and moldy cabbage.
After three months of training, he said almost his entire battalion was severely malnourished and had to be sent to a recovery center to gain weight back.
When they were later deployed as front-line guards on the border with South Korea, rice replaced corn. But by the time it reached their bowls, much of it had been siphoned off by the rear units, and the rest had been cut up with sand.
Haneul says his unit was among the best fed, a tactic to prevent them from defecting to South Korea. But that failed to stop Haneul.
In 2012, he rushed across the demilitarized zone (DMZ) – the strip of land separating the North from the South.
His experience and that of other military defectors are helping to shed light on the condition of thousands of North Korean soldiers deployed to the front lines of Russia's war against Ukraine.
BBC/Hosu Lee
Haneul was deployed as a border guard in the demilitarized zone with South Korea when he defected in 2012.
Pyongyang has reportedly sent around 11,000 troops to help Russian forces reconquer part of the Kursk region captured by Ukraine in a surprise summer offensive.
Earlier this week, Seoul, Washington and kyiv said soldiers had now entered the fight “in significant numbers” and reported the first casualties, with South Korean officials estimating more than 100 people had already been killed and others injured. This figure has not been confirmed.
However, defectors and other military experts told the BBC that these troops should not be underestimated.
According to South Korean intelligence, most belong to the elite Storm Corps unit and have “high morale” but “lack understanding of contemporary warfare.”
Only the tallest, most athletic men are selected for the Storm Corps, says defector Lee Hyun Seung, who trained North Korean special forces in the early 2000s before defecting in 2014.
He taught them martial arts, how to throw knives and make weapons from cutlery and other kitchen utensils.
But even though the Storm Corps' training is more advanced than that of regular North Korean units, the soldiers are still undernourished, if not undernourished.
Videos online, apparently showing troops in Russia, show soldiers who are younger and “fragile,” Haneul says. They contrast sharply with Pyongyang's propaganda videos, where we see men breaking out of iron chains and breaking blocks of ice with their bare hands.
During his entire time in the military, Haneul claims to have only fired three rounds during a single live-fire training session.
The closest there was to combat came when a starving farmer stumbled into the demilitarized zone in search of vegetables. Haneul said he ignored instructions to “shoot any intruder” and let the man go with a warning.
BBC/Hosu Lee
Lee Hyun Seung was a special forces trainer in North Korea in the early 2000s.
It's difficult to know how much things have changed in the decade since Haneul's defection, given the lack of information from North Korea. It appears that the country's leader, Kim Jong Un, has devoted much of his limited resources to missiles and nuclear weapons rather than his standing army.
But according to another soldier, Ryu Seonghyun, who defected in 2019, the first three years in the army are “incredibly tough”, even for special forces. The 28-year-old, who worked as a driver in the air force for seven years, says that during his service, conditions deteriorated and rice gradually disappeared from meals.
“Soldiers are sent into the mountains for days with a small amount of rice, and told it is part of their survival training.”
Given that these troops were trained to fight on the mountainous Korean Peninsula, defectors wonder how well they will adapt to fighting on the plains and in the trenches of Kursk.
Importantly, the Storm Corps are not a frontline unit. “Their mission is to infiltrate enemy lines and create chaos deep within enemy territory,” Ryu explains.
But, he adds, Kim Jong Un has no alternative but to send in special forces, because regular soldiers spend most of their time farming, building or cutting wood.
“Kim Jong Un needed to send men who could demonstrate at least some level of combat ability, to avoid damaging North Korea's reputation in Russia.”
BBC/Maxine Collins
Ryu says soldiers are sent into the mountains for days with a small amount of rice as part of survival training.
The language barrier seems to have created an additional obstacle. On Sunday, Ukraine's military intelligence unit said communications problems led North Korean soldiers to accidentally fire on a Russian battalion, killing eight people.
With these assessments, it might be easy to view the troops as “cannon fodder” and a sign of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desperation. But that would be a mistake, defectors say. Their loyalty to the regime and their combativeness will count for a lot.
“Most Storm Corps soldiers come from working-class or farming families, who are very obedient to the party and will follow orders without question,” says Haneul, whose father and cousin were in the special forces.
Intense ideological “brainwashing” sessions held every morning will further ensure they are mentally ready, Lee adds. He believes that North Korean troops will “get used to the battlefield, learn to fight the enemy and find ways to survive.”
Even though the soldiers will not have had a choice whether or not to be deployed, Ryu believes that many will have wanted to go. Ambitious people will see it as an opportunity to advance their careers, he says.
And given how difficult it is to serve in North Korea, some will have relished the opportunity to experience life abroad for the first time.
“I think they will be more willing to fight than the Russian troops,” he adds, admitting that in their situation he too would have wanted to be sent.
Chun In-bum, a former South Korean special forces commander, agrees with the defectors' assessments. “Just because they lack food and training doesn't mean they are incapable. They will acclimatize quickly. We must not underestimate them.”
While 11,000 troops are unlikely to be able to turn the tide in such a deadly war of attrition – Russia is estimated to be suffering more than a thousand casualties a day – experts and officials say that this could only be the first tranche, with Pyongyang potentially able to send up to 60,000 troops. or even 100,000 in the event of rotation.
According to Mr. Chun, these figures could prove effective.
Kim Jong Un will also be able to shoulder heavy losses without affecting the stability of his regime, the former soldiers say.
“Those who have been sent will be men without influence or connections – to put it bluntly, those who can be sacrificed without problem,” says Haneul.
He recalls being shocked to learn that there were no children of high-ranking parents in his frontline unit: “That's when I realized we were unusable . »
He does not expect much resistance from the families of the deceased, whose sons, he says, will be honored as heroes.
“There are countless parents who have lost a child after sending them to the army,” he adds, referring to his deceased first cousin. His aunt received a certificate commending her son for his heroic contribution.
Reuters
Photos released by North Korean state media in March 2024 show special forces soldiers participating in a training session.
The loyalty of soldiers and their families could blunt Ukrainian and South Korean hopes that many of them would simply defect once they entered combat. kyiv and Seoul discussed conducting psychological operations along the front line to encourage men to surrender.
But it seems they don't have access to cell phones. According to Ukrainian intelligence, even Russian soldiers' phones are seized before they meet North Korean troops.
Thus, possible infiltration strategies include broadcasting messages via loudspeakers or using drones to drop leaflets.
Ryu and Haneul decided to defect after reading anti-regime propaganda sent across the border from South Korea. But they doubt it will work so far from home.
They say it takes a long time to develop the desire and courage to defect.
Additionally, Haneul suspects that the police will have been ordered to shoot anyone trying to flee. He remembers his comrades opening fire as he made his daring sprint across the DMZ.
“Twelve bullets flew just one meter above my head,” he said.
Even capturing North Korean troops could prove difficult for Ukraine.
In the North, being a prisoner of war is considered extremely shameful and worse than death. Instead, soldiers are taught to commit suicide, by shooting themselves or detonating a grenade.
Ryu remembers a famous military song called Save the Last Bullet. “They tell you to save two bullets, one to shoot the enemy and one to shoot yourself.”
Nonetheless, Lee, a former special forces trainer, is determined to help. He offered to go to the front to communicate directly with the military.
“It's unlikely they'll defect in large numbers, but we have to try. Hearing familiar voices like mine and others in North Korea could have an impact on their psychology,” he says.
Haneul just hopes they return to North Korea. He knows that it is possible that some of his relatives were among the troops sent to help Russia.
“I just hope they get through this and come back safe.”
Additional reporting by Jake Kwon and Hosu Lee
