North Korean soldier held captive in Ukraine: ”I definitely want to go to South Korea...I also want to have a family”

Yoo Young-Won, a lawmaker from South Korea's ruling People Power Party, revealed on the 4th that a North Korean soldier who was captured by the Ukrainian army has expressed his intention to defect.
Rep. Yoo held a press conference at the National Assembly Communication Hall in Seoul today and spoke about the North Korean soldiers he met in Ukraine.
The report included recordings of the two prisoners' voices. According to Rep. Yoo, the prisoner, surnamed "Ri," expressed his intention to defect, saying, "I definitely want to go so I can see my parents."
He then asked, "If I go to South Korea, can I have another surgery?" Soldier Lee was shot in the jaw and was so seriously injured that he could not pronounce words properly, according to Yu.
"If I go to South Korea, will I be able to achieve the rights I desire?" Ri said, "I also want to have a home and a family that I need."
Another POW whom Rep. Yoo met, a soldier named Baek, responded to a question about his intentions to defect by saying, “I am about to make a decision.”
When asked if North Korean soldiers would choose to commit suicide if they were captured by the Ukrainian military, Baek said, "I have witnessed many such incidents. I was also injured and collapsed.
"I was not taught that kind of thing (by the military), and I thought that if I fought and was captured by the enemy, it would be a betrayal of my country, so I thought that way," said Soldier Baek.
Yu visited Ukraine from the 23rd to the 26th of last month at the official invitation of the Yalta Forum on European Strategy (YES), and during this visit met with two North Korean prisoners of war, Ri and Baek.
He met with the soldier for about an hour and 10 minutes. Rep. Yoo said, "The diplomatic authorities will make every effort to prevent the forcible repatriation of North Korean soldiers held as prisoners of war in Ukraine to North Korea.
"I hope the government will take swift and extraordinary measures to ensure that our intention to repatriate North Korean soldiers who have expressed their intention to defect is not ignored," he said.