Captured North Korean POW Wishes to See His Widowed Mother

One of the North Korean soldiers captured by Kyiv in Russia’s Kursk region has expressed a desire to seek asylum in South Korea if he cannot return home – but he would love to see his widowed mother.

The soldier, who previously said: “I only know that South Korea has fewer mountains than North Korea” when interrogated by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), shed light on his personal life and military service in a new interview.

Speaking to South Korean reporters from The Chosun Daily, the soldier – who was only identified as “Baek” – said his father had passed away, and his mother is his only surviving family member.

“My father… he passed away the year I enlisted. He was ill, got treatment, but… it happened just a month before I joined the military,” Baek said, adding that his father was a doctor before he passed.

He told The Chosun Daily that he last saw his mother four years ago – before he entered service in 2021 and eventually joined North Korea’s Reconnaissance General Bureau, one of Pyongyang’s elite units.

Baek added that he planned to attend university after his military service, where he would then become an officer and hopefully run his own business. 

On Kursk and drones

Baek said he expected high casualties in wars, but he was only told he would only be undergoing training “like real combat” by his superiors when deployed to Russia.

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In the previous interrogation, he said he arrived in Russia and was issued a false Russian ID in the autumn of 2024.

Speaking to The Chosun Daily, he said he arrived in Russia in November 2024 and went to Kursk on Jan. 3, where he was wounded and captured six days later.

“It was my first time abroad, so everything felt surreal. Fear didn’t hit me until I saw comrades falling beside me. But even then, I wasn’t truly scared,” he said when reporters asked about his experience in Kursk.

When asked about how many people he served with, he said 10 – most of them were either injured or dead.

However, he said “food and clothing were fine” in terms of living conditions.

Reporters also asked him about drones as North Korean troops were reportedly unfamiliar with the modern weapons – but Baek shrugged them off and said Pyongyang troops have decent marksmanship to down them.

“We shot them down. Russian troops often talked about drone threats, advising us to hide or flee. But our army’s marksmanship is strong – we just shot them down,” he said.

‘First, I want to go home’

Baek said he wished to return to North Korea – especially to see his mother.

“Parents just want their children to be happy, no matter where they are. But as a son… I can’t be truly happy without knowing how she’s doing,” he said.

Upon his capture, Baek expressed no desire to seek asylum in South Korea, but he now acknowledged that he might not be able to go home.

“If I can’t return home, I’ve thought about it,” he said when asked by The Chosun Daily about whether he considered seeking asylum in South Korea.

Following the reports, a South Korean official reiterated Seoul’s stance that it would grant asylums to North Korean soldiers captured by Kyiv.

“The government, based on the basic principle of accepting all of them when they request to come to South Korea and according to relevant laws, will provide necessary protection and support,” a South Korean foreign ministry official, speaking anonymously, told The Independent on Wednesday.