In January 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced to the world the capture of two North Korean soldiers.

It was the first hard evidence that Kim Jong Un had secretly deployed some 15,000 special forces troops to support the Russian invasion of Ukraine in exchange for billions of dollars worth of military technology and cash for Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme.

But posting the POWs’ images online and opening their prison doors to media caused alarm, with international human rights organisations arguing that such exposure breaches the Geneva Convention and puts the soldiers and their families in North Korea in grave danger.

As Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, 101 East investigates whether North Korean POWs are being used as political pawns and the challenges of bringing them to safety in South Korea.