Multiple defectors from North Korea spoke to NBC News about the mindset of soldiers sent to fight for Russia in Ukraine.

But Lee Chul Eun is one of them. Lee, 38, a North Korean defector and former soldier now living in South Korea, said it is “devastating” to see troops from the reclusive, communist-ruled North being ...

“They did not go there because they wanted to. 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 ...