File photo. Kim Jong Un, center, poses with North Korean air force sharpshooters and soldiers for a photo at an unknown location in North Korea in 2019
DAILY MAIL ONLINE | Published March 8, 2025
North Korea has ‘disappeared’ 20 crack troops after Kim Jong-un‘s ‘safety was seriously threatened’ when they broke one simple rule.
The soldiers were arrested for breaching safety protocols when the dictator observed exercises at their special forces base in September.
A Pyongyang source said the arrested men had looked towards the tyrant while armed, ‘potentially endangering the leader’s life’.
In propaganda photos of the visit, a grinning Kim can be seen watching his troops put through their paces.
Pictures capture armed men storming a building, taking target practice, and engaged in a shirtless martial arts performance.
At the time, a regime mouthpiece said Kim was ‘assured and proud to see the soldiers’ and gave them ‘high praise and great honour’.
In reality, the dictator reportedly complained of the soldiers’ posture during the exercises, and blamed their commanders.
The source continued: ‘The unit’s commanders and those involved likely face severe punishment, as the authorities take such mistakes during the supreme leader’s visits very seriously.
‘However, Kim must approve the final punishment.’
In a subsequent update, the source said the men would never return home, but would be transferred to ‘quarantine areas’.
They added that the families had been sent death notices to conceal the decision.
Self-propelled artillery units conduct training drills in North Korea, March 7, 2024
One set of parents from Sariwon, 40 miles south of Pyongyang, reportedly questioned the official narrative and went to the capital to investigate.
They too disappeared, according to Daily NK, which is based in neighbouring South Korea.
Officials then cleared out their home, telling neighbours that the house had been reassigned to someone else.
A source said: ‘They didn’t even die fighting for their country, so is it right for their families to be wiped out because of a single mistake made during shooting practice?’
Michael Madden, an expert on the country’s elite and founder of North Korea Leadership Watch, said it looked like Kim’s bodyguards passing the buck.
He said: ‘This seems to be a case of sh** rolling downhill.
‘Kim Jong-un’s security detail may not have made adequate preparations, but Special Operations Forces are intended to take the blame.’
He continued: ‘His bodyguards pride themselves on preparations and in this case something interfered with that.
‘They need to justify their role and power which means they will do anything to retain that authority.
‘If it’s their fault they will assign blame to other individuals or institutions to avoid accepting culpability.’
Artillery fires in a startling show of force in North Korea as troops watch on, March 7, 2024
Mr Madden, a fellow of the Stimson Center in Washington DC, also noted how Kim’s bodyguards wore blue tactical attire and carried assault rifles for the visit.
Usually they’d wear suits and ties.
‘We might interpret that as evidence that there were security concerns,’ he said.
As for the true fate of the detained men, they could pay the ultimate price.
He said: ‘If they fell on their swords and accepted responsibility then they got off with hard labour.
‘On the other hand they could have been executed.
‘I would point out, however, that this cohort was getting prepped for deployment to Russia.
‘So they may have been deployed and are expected to redeem themselves in battle as compensation.’
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SOURCE: www.dailymail.co.uk
RELATED: If North Korean soldiers fighting in Ukraine-Russia war are captured ‘their families will be executed’
North Korean defectors have revealed the threats made by Pyongyang to keep soldiers in line
North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia to fight Vladimir Putin’s war (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service)
THE INDEPENDENT | Published March 8, 2025
A former North Korean sergeant has said Pyongyang troops fighting in Ukraine were told their families would be executed if they are captured alive.
“If the soldiers are captured and tell information to the enemy, their families will be punished, go to a political prison camp, or worse, they will be executed in front of the people,” North Korean defector and researcher, Pak Yusung, told ABC News.
Ryu Seong-hyeon, who defected to South Korea in 2019, said few North Korean soldiers had been captured as a result.
“Most soldiers will kill themselves before they’re killed by the enemy, it’s the biggest shame to be captured,” Mr Seong-hyeon told ABC News. South Korean intelligence echoed this, claiming that North Korea ordered troops to kill themselves to avoid being captured alive.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent more than 11,000 soldiers to join Russian troops in November last year as Moscow’s casualties continue to mount.
In early February Ukrainian and American officials said North Korean troops were pulled from the frontline due to losses, but just days later South Korea’s spy agency claimed additional troops were sent to Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukrainian forces captured the first two North Korean soldiers to be taken alive by Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in January.
According to South Korean intelligence, the pair were part of North Korea’s intelligence bureau.
One of the soldiers reportedly said he wanted to stay in Ukraine when asked if he wanted to go home in a roughly three-minute video released by Kyiv after the capture.
The Korean translator also asked: “Did you know you were fighting in a war against Ukraine?”, to which the soldier shook his head.
Ukrainian forces capturing two North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region
More than 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been injured or killed in Russia by early January 2025, according to Kyiv.
South Korean intelligence analysis of a combat video attributes these casualties to their “lack of modern warfare” and “useless” shooting of long-range drones.
The Ukraine-Russia war is now in its fourth year, but tentative hopes of peace talks have faltered after an explosive meeting between US president Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday.
Then on Monday night Mr Trump announced he would pause military aid to Kyiv in a major blow to Ukraine’s hopes of combating Mr Putin’s bloody invasion.
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