SEOUL, South Korea — Few people understand what may be going through the minds of North Korean soldiers fighting and dying for Russia in the war against Ukraine. But Lee Chul Eun is one of them.

SEOUL, South Korea — Few people understand what may be going through the minds of North Korean soldiers fighting and dying for Russia in the war against Ukraine. But Lee Chul Eun is one of them.

W HEN SOUTH KOREA’S president, Yoon Suk Yeol, sent troops streaming into the country’s National Assembly on December 3rd, Lee ...

They went as mercenaries,” said Lee Chul Eun, 38, who spent five years as an intelligence officer with the North Korean military and swam for six hours to flee to South Korea in 2016.