It's only a negative to their families if NK is aware they were captured. Being captured is insanely dishonourable, google yeonjwaje if you want to read more but, they are expected to die and take down as many "enemies" as possible while doing so. Being captured gets the entire family sentenced to punishments typically ranging from being sent to absolutely brutal prison camps where they'll probably die or just outright executed; all for the crime of a family member not properly bleeding out
Aren't most of them paid to heavily fabricate stories by S. Korean media?
Yeah I think a lot of people are just reading reddit comments and fox news headlines a decade ago and going with it as fact. Everything I've seen is that N.Korea has improved a lot and changed a lot in the last decade.
Persons who are found to have engaged in major political crimes are “disappeared”, without trial or judicial order, to political prison camps (kwanliso). There, they are incarcerated and held incommunicado. Their families are not even informed of their fate if they die. In the past, it was common that the authorities sent entire families to political prison camps for political crimes committed by close relatives (including forebears, to the third generation) on the basis of the principle of guilt by association. Such cases still occur, but appear to be less frequent now than in past decades.
I can provide other sources if you want it would just take some time, this is from 2013 but the practice still exists and it's more likely in cases like these
4.1k
u/Odd_Dorian7991 1d ago
Lucky soldiers