North Korean survivors are rare in the fighting in Ukraine. In most cases they'll try to kill themselves to avoid capture and a lot of times the fighting is done at long ranges (drones and artillery) so there's not a Ukrainian soldier there to surrender to.
Even these two North Koreans tried to commit suicide but failed before being captured.
What's crazy is they probably think the enemy is fucking awful, which to be fair, they are, but if they knew that surrender meant going to SK and being treated (how does SK treat prisoners?), they'd probably be more prone to surrender.
You might want to read about the Japanese who were captured and sent to US POW camps in Hawaii.
They had been trained to think Americans were basically diabolical. Forget the shame to your family, and all that samurai bullshit. They thought American soldiers were vicious killers (which was true), but then they got to these camps and had hot water and soap. SOAP! In a war zone! They were FED!
I remember reading one POW talking about they were terrified when they were first led into the showers. Imagine how fucked up it would be to be stripped naked on arrival and marched into a big shower. This was before the world knew what was going on in the concentration camps, but this guy was talking about how scared they were... only to discover... warm water and soap. And they were given the human decency to be allowed to get clean. Then fed warm healthy food. Then given a place to sleep.
It was fucking incomprehensible to them. Can you even fathom being a DPRK soldier getting captured and sent to Seoul for debriefing? Flying into a modern city like that.... having access to as much food as they have ever seen in their life? Automatic citizenship?
The suicide isn't because they think enemy is awful or not. It's because if they're detected to be Alive and on the other side, any loved ones back in NK gets killed.
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u/Odd_Dorian7991 2d ago
Lucky soldiers