"Get Down," "Attack": Russian Soldier Learning Korean Complains, "What Does This Mean?"

Military Booklet Written in Korean and Russian Also Discovered
Videos of Ukrainian Soldiers Studying Korean Gain Attention

As North Korea's deployment of troops to Russia has become a fait accompli, a video has attracted attention showing a Russian soldier learning Hangul to communicate with North Korean soldiers, complaining about the difficulty of Hangul and uttering swear words. On the 28th (local time), a video posted on the Telegram channel of a pro-Ukraine group captured a soldier, presumed to be Russian, holding a piece of paper with Korean writing on it.

As North Korea's deployment of troops to Russia has become a fait accompli, a video has attracted attention showing a Russian soldier learning Korean to communicate with North Korean soldiers, expressing frustration over the difficulty of the Korean language and uttering profanity.
[Photo by Telegram exilenova_plus]

In the video, the soldier is holding a sheet of paper with North Korean phrases on the left side, and Russian explanations and phonetic transcriptions on the right. The paper contains basic Korean conversation phrases such as "Hello," "Nice to meet you," and "Is there a problem?" along with their pronunciations in the Latin alphabet and Russian translations. When the man filming the video asks, "How is your studying going?" the soldier responds with expletives, saying, "Damn it, damn!" When the man filming asks again, "What's wrong?" the soldier laments, "I don't understand any of this," and, pointing to the part that says "Where are you from?" he adds, "I don't get it. I really don't understand," once again uttering a swear word.

On the 28th (local time), a video posted on the Telegram channel of a pro-Ukraine group captured a soldier, presumed to be Russian, holding a piece of paper with Korean writing on it. [Photo by Telegram exilenova_plus]

The channel administrator who posted the video told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that "the original source of the video is a Russian military Telegram channel, but it cannot be disclosed as it is a means of gathering information." Additionally, on the 28th, a military terminology booklet written in both Korean and Russian was posted on social media platform X. This booklet included basic conversation phrases such as "Are you from Russia?", "Where are you from?", "What is your name?", and "Which unit are you from?", as well as various military terms like "What is your rank and position?", "Go over there!", "Help me", "Get down", "Attack", and "We do not surrender." Meanwhile, videos of Ukrainian soldiers learning Hangul in preparation for facing North Korean troops have also been shared on social networking services (SNS).

Previously, on the 29th, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) stated during a briefing to the National Assembly Intelligence Committee that communication between North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia and Russian soldiers is reportedly difficult due to the language barrier. The NIS explained, "There are indications that the Russian military is recruiting a large number of Korean language interpreters." Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that 3,000 North Korean soldiers are already fighting on Russia's side and that this number will soon increase to 12,000.