North Korean troops sent to support Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine shot their own Russian comrades after firing in the wrong direction, a captured Russian soldier claims.
Video reportedly shows the Russian soldier recalling his experiences in the Kursk region with Putin’s latest recruits.
The unnamed soldier said his unit was in a forest with 10 North Korean soldiers after being sent to dig trenches when they were caught in crossfire.
“During the attack, the Koreans started shooting at us,” he explained.
“We tried to explain to them where to aim, but I think they shot two of us.”
A video that emerged on social media showed the moment a Russian soldier captured by Ukrainian forces recalled his experiences in the Kursk region with Putin’s latest recruits from North Korea
It comes after North Korea’s foreign minister vowed to support Russia until its victory in Ukraine during a visit to Moscow last week.
Kim Jong Un has reportedly sent up to 10,000 troops to support Russia’s devastating invasion of Ukraine
“I decided that in this situation it was better to surrender than to be killed by our own bullet,” the soldier said.
The apparent episode of friendly fire is the latest in a series of frontline humiliations for Putin and his blundering forces.
It comes after North Korea’s foreign minister vowed to support Russia until its victory in Ukraine during a visit to Moscow last week.
Choe Son Hui’s visit to Russia came amid reports that up to 10,000 North Korean troops could be training in Russia and were about to join the more than two-year conflict on the Russian side.
US intelligence said last week that some North Korean troops were already moving towards the Kursk border area, with Washington and Seoul warning North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to withdraw his forces.
The Russian lower parliament has now unanimously ratified a defense treaty with North Korea that was concluded between Putin and Kim during the Russian president’s state visit to the North Korean capital in June.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian intelligence services last week released audio claiming to be Russian troops complaining about the arrival of North Korean fighters.
In one recording, a few soldiers can be heard belly-aching about the so-called ‘K Battalion’, referring to them as ‘damn Chinese’ and stating that one of his fellow soldiers had said ‘who knows what the f***ing Chinese’ **we have to make do with them’.
Another excerpt obtained by the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence Agency (GUR) appeared to reveal the lack of communication and planning regarding the integration of North Korean forces with their Russian counterparts.
Last month, a video surfaced showing North Korean soldiers in Russia
North Korea’s involvement in the Russia-Ukraine conflict comes after President Vladimir Putin signed a mutual assistance pact with Pyongyang this summer
“He was just talking about the K battalion, I say: ‘And who will get the weapons and ammunition for them?’ We have rations, and from what I hear they are for the brigade,” groaned a Russian soldier.
“He said, ‘What bloody brigade?’ You get everything.” I just said I understood everything and went outside to smoke.’
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has called the deployment a “provocation that threatens global security beyond the Korean Peninsula and Europe.”
Yoon also said South Korea will “revise” its position on supplying weapons to Ukraine in the war with Russia, which the country has long opposed.
Seoul has already sold billions of dollars worth of tanks, howitzers, attack planes and rocket launchers to Poland, a key ally of Kiev.