[News Now] Dead North Korean Army's 'Unsent Letter'...More than 3,000 casualties.

■ Host: Kim Sun-young Anchor, Jeong Chae-woon Anchor
■ Appearance: Kim Geum-hyuk, former Minister of Veterans Affairs, aide

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN NewsNOW] when quoting.

[Anchor]
Ukraine's Special Warfare Command has released a handwritten letter from a North Korean soldier who died in Kursk, Russia. In addition, the Ukrainian military said that more than 3,000 North Korean casualties were sent to Russia. Let's talk with Kim Geum-hyuk, a former aide to the Minister of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, about the relationship between North Korea and Russia, which is closely related to the dispatch of North Korean troops. Welcome. A handwritten letter found in the arms of a dead North Korean soldier has been released. We prepared a graphic. This is what it's about. My friend Song Ji-myung, who celebrates his birthday on Russian soil, leaving the arms of his beloved Joseon, loving father, and mother. It's written like this. I truly wish you good health and wish you a happy birthday. There is a note like this. I think
is a letter that contains longing for a desperate homeland, but it has not been sent. If you look at it, Russia is called Rosia?

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
That's right. In North Korea, it is called Rossiya after the Russian remarks. When you ask people who have actually learned Russian, they pronounce it Rosciya. The letter was released by the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine. It's a bit meaningful. What the Special Operations Forces revealed was not a general drone or shell that killed North Korean soldiers, but a military accident killed by direct combat by special operations forces and various items of the soldiers killed. It is said that the contents of that letter were in the notebook. Ukraine will disclose other contents in the notebook later, so we can wait and see what will come out.

As you said, the letter in the notebook was written on December 9th and was written to a colleague named Song Ji-myung, and what we can infer from the contents is that the colleague is also a North Korean soldier sent to the Russia-Ukraine war. I think it's a pity to think that maybe this soldier who is currently fighting in a different area, and that's why he had to send a letter.

[Anchor]
The content contains longing for parents, friends and colleagues, but will the family in North Korea know that this soldier is dead?

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
Comprehensive analysis of all the information that has been released so far shows parents in North Korea. Hasn't about 12,000 troops been sent to the Russia-Ukraine war at the moment? Those 12,000 parents don't know exactly where and what their children are doing. I can make an analogy. And a certain amount of information went in through the North Korea-China border. Therefore, it is now only a rumor that has been passed on inside North Korea. That's why it is said that there are many parents who are much more anxious. The North Korean authorities have not officially informed them that they went to a certain unit or a certain part of Russia.

Therefore, there is a high possibility that North Korea will keep silent about the fact that it was killed. Because suddenly there have been so many deaths, and including the injured, isn't there about 3000 people now? I have to notify my parents about the safety of about 3,000 people, but it is quite a burden for North Korea to announce that they were killed or injured when I did not even inform them of the previous situation or the dispatch of troops. Therefore, it is understood that North Korea is currently putting a lot of effort into finding a suitable basis for sending troops to Russia to North Koreans.

[Anchor]
They are known as soldiers at a fairly young age, and you can see how much you miss your family just by looking at the short letter, but if you are blocked from telling your family news, your psychological agitation will grow as time goes by.

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
That's right. Even before the North Korean military's chronic structure itself was dispatched, that is, when serving as a soldier in North Korea, there are not many means of contacting their families. It's not like soldiers can use smartphones except for two or three letters and correspondence a year. Because of that.

[Anchor]
Do you rarely have a vacation?

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
There are very few vacations. Vacation is not a structure that can be used freely like Korean soldiers. Also, the service period is not very long. Don't you think so? With a service period of 7 to 10 years, the soldiers who stay away from their parents for that long period of time are quite disturbed and have a lot of longing for their parents. Didn't you even dispatch your troops in the meantime? Even more so, it is difficult to tell the news, and I think there must have been some fraud at the time of dispatch. In any case, since North Korean soldiers have been brainwashed by the North Korean regime all their lives, they must have had their own courage and things like that before arriving at the battlefield.

However, the fact that 3,000 casualties are occurring in less than a month after the battle began in earnest will certainly follow the decline in the morale of the surviving soldiers. In situations like yesterday's friends have been killed or injured, the most important thing is that they have been mobilized for an unjustified war because they have not found the cause or why they have to fight here.

[Anchor]
The soldiers sent to the Kursk front this time are known as the best special forces. But it came out as a subtitle.Ma said that there were three times more casualties than the North Korean military casualty estimate revealed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. What is the reason for this difference?

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
So when you say it's a special forces unit, I don't know how much North Korea has taken out of the total number of troops, from 12,000 now.Ma was basically elected by the Storm Corps and the Special Operations Force of the Korean People's Army. It's right that he was selected. However, special forces are effective as special forces if they are used for special operations. However, if you look at Russia's current use of North Korean troops on the Russian battlefield, especially on the Kursk front, it is sending them to a more pathetic battlefield than a complete frontline infantry.

So, without basic defense equipment or weapons, you're just walking around the bare field without an armoured vehicle or anything like that, and you're being attacked by a drone without unilaterally responding to anything, right? Therefore, even special operations forces, people who have been trained for a special purpose, can actually not use the training they received before and show less combat power than ordinary infantry.

[Anchor]
You talked about drone attacks, but if you look at the video, it seems that many people felt sorry that the North Korean military was helplessly attacked by drone attacks. In fact, this drone attack is difficult for the North Korean military to be trained. What do you think?

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
That's right. I'm sure those soldiers didn't know anything about the existence of such drones when they were in North Korea. Drones are not currently commercialized in North Korea. Some special units are using drones, but the broad range used by the Ukrainian military, the Ukrainian military has been using drones for really different purposes for about two and a half years, haven't they? Compared to them, the experience that the North Korean military has is really insignificant. Of course, he was sent to Russia and received intensive training for about a few weeks, but in the end, the training cannot exceed the two and a half years of Ukrainian military combat experience. What we can learn from the released video is that even if he had been trained on drones, he faced them without any protective equipment in such a large open area.Ghana actually has very little chance of avoiding it.

[Anchor]
I don't think they'll know if it's an ally or an enemy.

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
That's right. As a result, North Korean soldiers now shoot whenever they see a drone. It could be a Russian drone, but the Russian military has such a complaint. Since the North Korean military has a high fear of drones, there were also complaining interviews in which the North Korean military fired guns regardless of the enemy or the South Korean military. That's why it can be said that the North Korean military is being scolded very badly by drones.

[Anchor] According to various foreign media analyses as well as
drone, the North Korean military does not have many technologies suitable for modern warfare. There was even a saying that they are holding up now with World War II technology.

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
That's right. But it's not just a matter of any North Korean military that needs to be looked at a little deeper. The way the Russian military is currently fighting is following the way the Soviet Union fought Germany in World War II. When we go back to the beginning of the war, the Russian ceremonies and various infantry joint operations were quite modern. But with such modern operations, we invaded Kyiv and all failed, and we were eventually repelled by the Ukrainian forces, right? Since then, it has become a battle of high ground on the Eastern Front, where it is now pushed and pushed. Therefore, naturally, the battle aspect is who enters the trenches faster in the early modern war and who organizes the trenches faster. Do you want to kill even one more person faster? As it changes to this very local aspect, it is very similar to the battle patterns of World War I and World War II, where so many troops are forced to fight against one inch of land.

The North Korean military has been introduced to such combat sites, and the North Korean military is not practically operating from any rear, but is acting as a front-line infantryman to find Ukrainian positions at the front and search for the trenches one by one. In the past, Russia conscripted prisoners to form such a front-line unit, but now that there are no prisoners, they have replaced the role with the North Korean military. That's why the North Korean military's casualties are increasing a lot.

[Anchor]
You also said that the North Korean military is not good at identifying the enemy and our troops and attacks drones once they see them indiscriminately. Then, won't the Russian military's internal opposition increase?

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
That's right. It's not exactly 100% true, but when you look at various interviews comprehensively or when you look at data posted by pro-Russian bloggers on social media, the Russian military also thinks that. In other words, I brought him because he said he was a special forces unit, but his fighting power is poor. So there are not enough supplies that the Russian military currently gives to Russian troops in the country. However, in such a situation, it is necessary to share the supplies with 12,000 North Korean soldiers. And another thing is, isn't there a lot of weapons coming from North Korea? It is said that 60% of the shells used by the Russian military now are Bukhansan. In addition, about a third of Russia's ballistic missiles are imported from North Korea. However, there are also problems with the quality of the missile, so there are cases of self-destruction and misfire, so it can be said that various problems are inevitably caused by joint military operations between North Korea and Russia.

[Anchor]
However, there was a lot of speculation about where the idea of sending troops came from, but it was usually known that North Korea responded to Russia's request, but now in the New York Times, according to experts, it was Kim Jong-un's idea. That's why North Korea suggested that we would send it first.

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
That's right. That's how I see it. I'm sure Russia also needed to send North Korean troops. And Kim Jong-un must have had that urgency to get a lot out of Russia by sending his soldiers to Russia. I think it must have been the difference between who is more desperate. It's reported that Kim Jong-un was a little more desperate. To understand this situation, it is necessary to take a look at the economic and social situations of North Korea last year and this year. The bleakest news from North Korea in 2023 was the beginning of a second march of hardship. There are a series of starvation again. And isn't the food supply going right? I heard that prices are rising very much and the exchange rate is very high.

Such news also disproved the fact that North Korea's economic situation is deteriorating considerably and that the government is not properly managing its people. As a result, from the perspective of North Korea, isn't North Korea quite isolated diplomatically and relations between North Korea and China are deteriorating? The only way out was to eventually stick to Russia and take Russia's convenience and get what North Korea needs from Russia, and I believe that the only way out was to eventually form a close relationship between North Korea and Russia at a very fast pace that is difficult for us to understand.

[Anchor]
Some say that they used it as an opportunity to improve their combat power because they had no experience in combat power while dispatching North Korean troops to Russia. What do you think about this?

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
Obviously, about 3,000 North Korean soldiers are currently injured, but there will be more casualties in the future. And I'm almost certain that another additional troops will be sent. But at the same time, what's worrisome is that, as you said, we know too well that the North Korean military ignores human life anyway, don't we? Even with such disregard for human life, the North Korean military will have quite a lot of combat experience.

I'm getting hit by drones now, but time eventually solves everything, so if you get used to drones and get various data that can be used to drones, such as drone operation experience, isn't that a real-world experience really hard to get for the North Korean military? If the North Korean military with such hands-on experience turns the gun to us, the security anxiety that the Republic of Korea may feel will be much worse than now. That's why I think we should do the least we can do to keep our feet together.

[Anchor]
Anyway, in Chairman Kim Jong-un's calculation method, he would have calculated that he would gain more than lose, it seems like this. To the end. The possibility of visiting Russia continues to be raised, so let's talk about when it will take place. As the number of casualties is increasing so much now, there must be rumors in North Korea, and please predict how many children's songs there will be.

[Kim Geum-hyuk]
First of all, to answer the possibility of Kim Jong-un's visit to Russia, May next year will mark the 80th anniversary of Russia's Victory Day. The 80th anniversary of Victory Day is a victory day to commemorate Soviet Army Day, which ended the reading war with victory. Russia considered the Victory Day very important in the Soviet period, and Russia celebrated it very, very grandly. On the 80th anniversary, there is also a possibility that Kim Jong-un will lead a military delegation and North Korean troops will pass in front of the Kremlin together at the military parade.
I think that's May. But if there's one variable, it's like this. If the North Korean military loses lives and fails to produce any combat results on the Kursk front, various justifications for Kim Jong-un's visit to Russia will be diluted a little.

In other words, if the battle pays off and Kursk is returned to Russia before May next year, Kim Jong-un is very likely to go to Russia confidently if the North Korean military has made a lot of contributions in the process of returning it. And now, from the perspective of North Koreans, especially parents who sent troops to Russia, hear such rumors in secret, and everyone is anxious because they do not know who the casualties are. It is said that not only the frontline soldiers, but also the officers' parents and their families are quite anxious.

[Anchor]
I've talked with Kim Geum-hyuk, a former aide to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, about sending troops to North Korea.
Thank you.