A South Korean lawmaker said Tuesday that a North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine wanted to live a "normal life" in the South, after Seoul vowed to offer citizenship to Pyongyang's troops.
In January, Seoul's National Intelligence Service confirmed that the Ukrainian military had captured two of around 10,000 North Korean soldiers they estimate have been sent by Kim Jong Un to fight for Moscow in their war against Kyiv.
Lawmaker Yu Yong-weon said that he was able to meet the two soldiers, who remain in Ukrainian custody at a detention facility in an undisclosed location, after submitting a request to Kyiv authorities.
"The moment I faced the two young prisoners, I was overwhelmed with emotions -- compassion, sympathy, and an innate sense of empathy," said Yu in a press conference.
One of the soldiers told him that he wanted to move to South Korea so that he could eventually reunite with his parents, Yu recounted.
Yu also said that the soldier asked if he would be able to "live as he wish with the rights I hope for" if he goes to South Korea and asked if he would be able to "have a home and start a family there".
Under South Korea's constitution, all Koreans, including those who live in the North, are considered citizens, and officials reaffirmed last month that this would apply to any troops captured in Ukraine.
Sending the soldiers back to the North would be "essentially a death sentence," Yu said.
North Korean troops have been instructed to kill themselves rather than be captured, South Korean intelligence has said, and Yu said the soldiers told him they had witnessed multiple suicides by grenade by their injured comrades.
"Even as prisoners of war, North Korean soldiers are constitutionally recognized as South Korean citizens and must be protected accordingly," Yu added.
In 2019 the South Korean government expelled two North Korean men after investigators said the pair murdered 16 crewmates before taking their fishing boat to South Korean waters.
It was the first-ever transfer from the South to the North since the end of the Korean War.
However new images were released three years later showing one man desperately resisting the handover.
