'It's a slaughter': Video claiming to show North Korean soldier captured in Kursk emerges

Pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel ExileNova released a video purporting to show a North Korean soldier describing a skirmish and claiming to have been misled.

Screen capture of Telegram channel ExileNova's video of an alleged North Korean soldier [SCREEN CAPTURE]

A video claiming to show a North Korean soldier that survived a battle with Ukrainian forces in Kursk has emerged on Telegram.

Pro-Ukrainian Telegram channel ExileNova released a 127-second video titled “Warning from Kursk” on Friday. The channel stated that the sole surviving North Korean soldier expressed dissatisfaction with Russian President Vladimir Putin and urged his fellow countrymen to stay home.

The video shows a man, presumed to be a North Korean soldier, lying in a hospital bed with bandages wrapped around his head and face, stained with blood and pus. His speech is hard to understand, but the video claims that he said — in what did appear to be a North Korean accent — that he was the only survivor of the Kursk engagement.

According to the video, the soldier stated that the Russian military deceived them, claiming the North Koreans would "build fortifications and guard the objects."

“But they sent us on an assault in the Kursk region, without any reconnaissance or proper weapons to defend ourselves,” he said.

He added, “There were about 40 of us, but all are dead, I am left alone, I have nothing to lose.” He described how shrapnel decapitated his comrades, and that he survived by “hiding under their bodies.”

"The Ukrainians killed everyone, the blame for their death lies with the Russian army and President Putin, he deceived our Great Leader, the sun-faced Kim Jong-un," he said, according to the subtitles.

The man also spoke about the disparity between the Ukrainian and Russian forces, saying, “The Ukrainians have great combat technologies that the Russians do not have.”

"We were used as bait," said the man. "President Putin, your army is weak and will lose this war. Our brothers died because of the chaos in your army."

"It's not a war, it's a slaughter."

The authenticity of the video has not been verified.

Jonas Ohman, head of the Lithuanian NGO “Blue-Yellow,” claimed in an interview with Lithuanian outlet LRT on Monday that Ukrainian forces they support made their first visual contact with North Korean soldiers in Kursk on Oct. 25, with only one surviving.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky disputed these reports in an interview with Korean broadcaster KBS on Wednesday, saying, “North Korean forces have not participated in combat yet. They are preparing for battle in Kursk,” dismissing claims of engagement and North Korean casualties as inaccurate.

BY KIM MIN-YOUNG [kim.minyoung5@joongang.co.kr]