YTN Radio (FM 94.5) [YTN News FM Wise Radio Life]
□ Broadcast Date: November 4, 2024 (Mon)
□ Host: Announcer Park Gui-bin
□ Castor: Kim Young-mi, PD,
* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.
◆ Announcer Park Gui-bin (hereinafter referred to as Park Gui-bin): A video clip of a man believed to be a North Korean soldier who recently dispatched troops to the war in Ukraine has been released. According to the man's story. All 40 members of the unit who participated in the war were killed except for themselves, and Russia did not give them proper weapons. If this video is true, it can be said that the concern that the North Korean military will be deployed to the actual front line and will actually become a bullet stand has become a reality. Related Contents This is someone who recently went to cover the war in Ukraine. Let's have a talk with Kim Young-mi at the PD studio specializing in international disputes. Hello, PD.
◇Kim Young-mi PD (hereinafter referred to as Kim Young-mi): Hello.
◆Park Gui-bin: I just gave you the video first, and this person is wearing a bandage on his face, so his pronunciation was not accurate. If I read it a little bit first, 'When we arrived in Kursk, we forced them to participate in the offensive war without intention. The Russian dogs xx didn't do any reconnaissance before the attack and didn't give us any weapons to stay healthy. There were 40 members of our unit, and all of them, including my friends Hyukchul and Kyunghwan, were killed. My eyes saw the bodies of Russian soldiers piled up like mountains and destroyed defensive positions. Putin will lose this war. ’ That's what I said. Of course, the authenticity of the video has not yet been confirmed. Producer, how did you watch this video?
◇Kim Young-mi: What I felt while watching is that it would be more difficult to manipulate. Now, the region of Kursk is within Russian territory. So if you go to the east, Kharkiv, which was recently occupied by Russia, it's the easternmost city. It's up there. So in this area, to put it simply, Ukraine attacked the Kursk side like a war of retaliation for the takeover of Kharkiv, but the problem is that the war in Ukraine has been almost three years. When I went there, it was similar to what he was saying, even though it was over two years ago. The battlefield situation is. And although not officially, both sides don't want to count their own dead, but the Ukrainian army is killing more than 500 people a day, and the Russian side is killing nearly 1,300 people. Then, if both sides add up, it's 1,800 people. There are 18,000 people in 10 days. So I think that's what it means when bodies are piled up like mountains, as shown in this video. In the winter, there is no condition for both sides to take the bodies of the dead while fighting. And there were cases where one regiment was disbanded and a few people came without surviving, and it was very serious at the time. So now, I thought that if it was more serious than then, it would be more serious. As you can see in this video, the situation is true. But North Korea is deeply involved in the war in Ukraine. In the future, there could be more videos like this, and I don't think it's strange that North Korean troops are active there in North Korea. In fact, when I left Ukraine in February, I heard that the Ukrainian government was preparing for battle from the rear. I'm guessing that by now, the conditions for participation in the battle would have been possible.
◆Park Gui-bin: You've been covering Ukraine for about 67 days from February. So, the situation is similar to that time, you mean the situation you found out when you went in February, right?
◇Kim Young-mi: Due to the passport law, I could only cover around Kyiv and around that area, so our local production team used to go to the front. In fact, the cable there is a cable, but there are so many bodies piled up and there are so many troops that are wiped out overnight, so I had to cover it when I went there and all of them were destroyed, so there were cases where I came back. As a result, it was very difficult to cover. But actually, the capital city of Kyiv is also dangerous, but it's dangerous to go like this elsewhere, so it's true that our production team was very dangerous while covering the story.
◆Park Gui-bin: He will be deployed to Kursk region. That's how it was known. What does it mean that the dispatched North Korean troops will be deployed to this border area when it is known as a border area?
◇Kim Young-mi: It's the front line. On the front line, it's so terrible that the American media used the expression, "The meat is being divided," but there were so many deaths, and when we were covering our story, it was a funeral almost every day in the area of Kiu. However, it is fortunate that I can bring the dead body, but there were many families who couldn't bring it, and only a part of it comes from the body. And now, because of the drone attack, the drone detonated a bomb overhead, and the bodies were now headless. So it was very difficult to identify, so if you look at our military, there's an identification mark like a necklace. But now that my hair is gone, it's meaningless. So I sometimes find my family through DNA analysis, but it wasn't that easy. Because there were so many people killed in action, and it was difficult to get the body there and test DNA, so it was accepted that it would be a relief to have a funeral.
◆Park Gui-bin: I think ordinary citizens have also covered it locally. What do you think?
◇Kim Young-mi: Even though I'm in the capital city of Kyiv, sometimes ballistic missiles or something like that spill white a day.
◆Park Gui-bin: There's a lot of civilian damage, right?
◇Kim Young-mi: There are a lot. So, it means that when the siren goes off, the air raid starts. So, when this siren goes off, I have to hide somewhere, and people like us go and hide, but some Ukrainians don't really care about it. So why don't you care, it's no use for us to avoid it. If you die, you live. I felt a bit of a refreshing atmosphere, but most of the air raids at schools didn't go well, so I was under a lot of stress about the air raid siren. So people had a lot of insomnia, and depression, in fact, the depression caused by this air raid, was the most serious. So we also covered that part intensively, but when we met with experts, we heard that they locked us up in Ukraine's territory and continued to scare us with missiles and engage in psychological warfare.
◆Park Gui-bin: Civilians also seem to be in a state of desperation. I think you just said this. It's a terrible thing, so it's hard for me to conduct an interview. First of all, I'll ask you one more time about the North Korean military. Earlier, the authenticity of the North Korean military has not been confirmed, but from what you found there, it was not much different from what the person said. Then, when the dispatch first became known, there was some concern that the North Korean army would become a bulletproof giver, and what this man said put us in a border battle without proper weapons. Isn't that what you're saying? So you're going to fight now in a very poor situation.
◇ Kim Young-mi: It's not just the North Korean military that's discriminatory, it's the same for the Russian military. If you look at it, they don't have enough weapons and they fight with personalizers used in the Soviet Union. So, if what the North Korean military says in the video is true, it seems that they are mixing with the Russians, but the problem is that the battlefield is being cut off, as I said before, so once you look at it, you are out of your mind. So the news that 18 North Korean soldiers defected from the South recently came out. What I understand is that if you don't desert, you're not normal. I think they deserbed that way to live. In fact, North Korea has no combat experience. That's why I saw the most extreme battle scene in that sense. They thought their mental problems would be very serious, and they were caught by the Russian military and came back, but I think what they experienced will last forever. This person curses these situations where people are separated, as shown in this video. That will continue now, and I think more North Korean troops may go in the future. If the Russian army dies like this, it has to be filled every day.
◆Park Gui-bin: He's using a tactic. Are you sure you're saying this?
◇Kim Young-mi: Yes, that's right. So, they have to go beyond the place where the bodies are piled up, so of course, they need more bullets, and in the case of the North Korean military, they are people who have received trained military training, but the Russian military has real civilians coming. So, from Russia's point of view, they may think that they are better off because they have received special training in North Korea than those who have only worn civilian uniforms, right? So in that sense, I suspect that Russia could have considered sending North Korean troops to the front line more.
◆Park Gui-bin: The Ukrainian military will be considerable. There are reports that it is the first time Russia has dispatched foreign troops while sending North Korean troops to Ukraine, and some analysts say that Russia is in a hurry. What did you think?
◇Kim Young-mi: That's right. You have to put 1,300 people in there a day, so even if 3,000 North Korean soldiers are dying, it's only two days long. We need to put in more humans, but since humans are not photographed well in factories, we have to cover the population in Russia. Now we think of soldiers from other countries, and North Korea and Russia signed a military agreement last June, and in fact, it is similar to the situation of the Korean War. In that sense, the North Korean side must have wanted to show off its military power and wanted to take some hegemony over the East Asian side by joining hands with Russia. Even before that, for example, ballistic missiles are now supplied by North Korea to Russia, and in this respect, it is the best card to further solidify diplomatic relations between Russia and North Korea. I think this strategy would be the best to appeal that we have worked hard for you in Russia if we go and die, but the problem is that the North Korean soldiers are very young. And the idea is that if we're high school students who haven't experienced war, and we're high school students, we're not going to be able to handle it when we go into this war in Ukraine, which is now the most brutal war on the planet. In fact, there are more people who are dead than those who return when they enter, but from this point of view, it is speculated that North Korea also has parents and will affect the system.
◆Park Gui-bin: Ukrainian President Zelensky said, 'It is of utmost importance to us to increase the resources to exchange for Ukrainian prisoners captured by Russia. ’ I said this. And if North Korean troops become prisoners, they will be treated as prisoners of war. ’ I said this, but the North Korean military is now in combat and is dying almost to the point of war, but very young soldiers, now they have their families. In the case of Kim Jong-un, as you said earlier, he made this decision with the intention of now solid relations with Russia. What do you think will happen to Kim Jong-un's position in North Korea if he becomes a prisoner of war and is now in the media?
◇ Kim Young-mi: It is also natural that prisoners of war always occur and that the Ukrainian government will fully treat the North Korean soldiers as prisoners of war.
◆Park Gwi-bin: What does that mean?
◇ Kim Young-mi: It paradoxically now emphasizes that when Ukrainian prisoners are captured by Russia, they are not being treated for the standards that are protected by international law. In fact, when I saw the prisoners who were returned to Ukraine after being taken prisoner to Russia, they suffered torture, beatings, and other bad things, so their mental problems are still very serious. So in that sense, the Ukrainian government has continued to demand Russia to treat us fairly as prisoners of war, but there are still so many prisoners who have not returned. So under the Geneva Convention, prisoners of war are treated like civilians if they abandon their weapons. And there are a number of regulations. There are various standards such as the facility to house the prisoners and the person's three meals a day, and the Ukrainian government's position is that the Russian side has not balanced the Ukrainian prisoners to that extent. So on the other hand, the prisoners of war in Ukraine can't be as enormous as Russia. With Ukraine, it is natural for the Ukrainian government to continue to appeal these parts because the U.S. and South Korea need to receive aid from countries with high moral standards, and when a war crime is committed, the Ukrainian military may be beleaguered with no aid from the Western world.
◆Park Gui-bin: I heard you were interviewed by a Ukrainian family with a son who was taken prisoner by Russia.
◇Kim Young-mi: One of the people who was taken prisoner to Russia was on the Russian propaganda broadcast. So he visited his parents and covered it, and this is the mother standing with a picket in front of the presidential palace from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. a day. That's the only thing I can do. He picks it up every day, and he's the only son. So, it hurt a lot when I said, "I'm an only son and I'm a son after seven years." The problem is, I don't know how it is in Ukraine and North Korea these days, but there are so many cases where the dead are only sons. So I thought that the sadness of these mothers and fathers could change the game of war in a way. But it's not just Ukraine, it's also Russia. Now there's a group called Home from Moscow, which is a group of mothers and wives who sent their sons and husbands to the battlefield. Even in that cold winter, they kept coming out and protesting. I think so, so parents in both countries are going crazy right now. So I'm holding a demonstration like this asking for my children to be sent, but neither Russia nor Ukraine can ignore this sentiment. So I think the game of war may change, but since the North Korean army comes in this game, the North Korean army must also have parents. So I think these situations could have a big impact on the war in the future, and Ukraine is Europe. But we're in Asia. This war where the continent connects, it's very dangerous. That's because World War I and World War II all did that, so it became a world war, and when World War III broke out, there were many movies that came out such as nuclear war. Therefore, there are many perceptions that World War III should not be faced by our humanity, but I think this cross-continental war is a very dangerous war.
◆Park Gui-bin: What was the most shocking scene while covering the war in Ukraine? If you can tell me a short one, everything you've said is shocking to me.
◇Kim Young-mi: It felt like a drone was alive. I haven't actually checked it myself, but I don't think it's going to be able to come in to the side with a controller. Is it equipped with AI or something? To this extent, 100 Iranian-made Russian drones flew in every night and were hooked on tj regular apartments. These drones are just a small house, and they're of little use. So he was aiming for an apartment.
◆Park Gui-bin: Civilians are not protected at all, and he knows the current situation best, and he has been to war zones to cover a lot of news. I hope this interview will help us to remember this fact. If there's anything you're doing, please say a few words.
◇Kim Young-mi: Actually, Ukraine is far away, so you may not see it well, but it's too conventional a war for nearly 2,000 people to be divided in a day. On the other hand, weapons use more weapons that can kill people, so the human body is very weak to prevent bullets. So, this war that humans are divided like meat should not have been faced in our time, but the problem is that these wars continue to be old and no one is interested, so I think that if North Korea intervenes and several countries intervene, a world war could go and it could certainly affect us.
◆Park Gui-bin: This has been Kim Young-mi, a producer specializing in international disputes. Thank you.
◇Kim Young-mi: Yes, thank you.
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