Ukraine has been revealing details from a diary purportedly taken from a North Korean soldier who died while fighting in Eastern Europe.
Excerpts from the journal reveal that North Korean soldiers employ risky defense tactics against drones and artillery strikes. Ukraine’s special forces claim that now-deceased North Korean private Gyeong Hong Jong wrote the diary.
In October, The Dallas Express detailed how Russia and North Korea had agreed to bring the latter’s soldiers to the front lines in the fight against Ukraine. The news followed Russian President Vladamir Putin’s visit to North Korea in June 2024 to shore up relations between the two bordering nations. It was Putin’s first visit to the so-called hermit kingdom in 24 years amid deepening ties between the two isolated countries.
In one diary entry, stick-figure drawings were used to describe “How to eliminate a drone,” according to Business Insider. It showed a figure standing on open ground while two other figures fired at an approaching drone.
“If a UAV is spotted, gather in groups of three. … One person must act as bait to lure the drone while the other two take aim and neutralize it with precision shooting. The bait must maintain a distance of seven meters from the drone. The other two should prepare to shoot down the drone from a distance of 10 to 12 meters. When the bait stands still, the drone will stop and it can be shot down,” read a translation from The Wall Street Journal.
Business Insider, which could not conclusively verify the authenticity of the diary entries, says that the soldier also wrote how to avoid artillery strikes. He said that North Korean troops should “disperse in small groups” if artillery starts landing around them. The journal entry also said the soldiers could hide in areas previously hit, as the soldier incorrectly believed artillery does not strike the same location twice.