Japanese Media: "North Korean Soldiers Repeatedly Use Face-Damaging Grenades for Suicide on Ukraine Front"

Kyodo News: "Estimated to Conceal Identities... Around 20 Cases"

Reports have emerged that North Korean soldiers are increasingly committing suicide on the Ukrainian front lines.

North Korean soldiers deployed in Kursk, Russia, fighting against drones.
[Photo by President Zelensky]

On the 14th, Kyodo News cited Ukrainian government officials and military sources, reporting that nearly 20 cases have occurred where North Korean soldiers detonated grenades near their own faces to kill themselves.

A local military official explained that North Korean soldiers resort to suicide by grenade when they run out of bullets or are injured and unable to escape. The act of detonating grenades near their faces appears to be intended to conceal their identities, which is analyzed as stemming from an effort to hide North Korea's involvement in the conflict.

A Ukrainian official stated, "This behavior seems to be ordered by the North Korean leadership and can be interpreted as a result of some form of brainwashing." Kyodo News also reported that bodies of soldiers with faces burned by fire have been found on the battlefield, presumed to have been set ablaze by comrades using flammable liquids to conceal their identities.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service revealed at an unofficial briefing of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee the previous day that casualties among North Korean soldiers deployed to the Ukrainian front have reached about 3,000. Items found on the bodies of the deceased included instructions from North Korean authorities emphasizing suicide before capture. Recently, there was also a reported case where a North Korean soldier, facing imminent capture by Ukrainian forces, shouted "General Kim Jong-un" and attempted to detonate a grenade to commit suicide but was shot dead.

However, the National Intelligence Service did not disclose specific information regarding the timing and location of the suicides and shootings of North Korean soldiers, adding that the information was received through Ukrainian intelligence authorities.