Conflicts

North Korean soldiers involved in the conflict in Ukraine may never return home and could live out jailed abroad, according to an expert.

A contingent of 10,000 troops sent by Kim Jong Un is currently fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. However, an expert has suggested that survivors might not be repatriated.

Keir Giles, an expert and author, told Mirror.com that the North Korean soldiers likely won’t return home because their overseas experience would make them a threat to the regime.

"There's a good reason why Russia has kept North Korean troops on its territory for now. They’ve had enough trouble with their own Russian soldiers going into Ukraine and realizing how much better life is just living it outside Russia. The individuals in North Korea are unlikely ever to be allowed to return home now they have experienced what life is like outside North Korea, even if it is in regions of Russia itself," he argued.

Last summer, the relationship between Russia and North Korea deepened with the signing of a mutual defense agreement, which the Asian nation formally ratified earlier this week.

"It would be dangerous for the North Korean regime to allow them back to infect others with knowledge of what they have seen. We might instead see a return to the kind of purges that were carried out against the Red Army in 1945 when they returned from Europe. Large parts were encircled and sent to the gulags," he added.

(QG - Source : The Mirror US / Picture: © Unsplash)