North Korea is restoring its Chilly Struggle-era comradeship with Russia by taking care of Russian troopers wounded within the struggle in opposition to Ukraine, in addition to internet hosting Russian kids who misplaced mother and father within the combating, based on Moscow’s ambassador to Pyongyang.
The presence of tons of of wounded Russian troops, in addition to an unspecified variety of Russian struggle orphans, in North Korea was revealed by Alexander Matsegora, the Russian ambassador to North Korea, in an interview printed on Sunday by the state-run information outlet Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
Mr. Matsegora made the revelation, which couldn’t be independently corroborated, whereas emphasizing the pleasant ties between Russia and North Korea. It’s also notable as one of many first public admissions by both aspect of North Korea’s sensible help for its ally’s struggle effort. The bilateral relations have deepened quickly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three years in the past, and North Korean troops have just lately began combating alongside the Russian forces.
North Korea has suffered hundreds of casualties within the struggle. However it has additionally been caring for injured Russian troopers, based on Mr. Matsegora.
“One of many clear examples of our brotherly ties is the rehabilitation of tons of of troopers wounded within the particular army operation at Korean sanitariums and clinics,” the envoy stated, referring to the struggle in opposition to Ukraine.
Final yr, North Korea additionally acquired Russian kids whose fathers died on the battlefield, housing them within the Songdowon kids’s recreation heart in Wonsan, on the east coast of North Korea, he stated. The North Koreans had been taking care of the Russian troopers and kids freed from cost, he stated. The Russian envoy supplied no particulars in regards to the kids, together with how lengthy they deliberate to remain in North Korea.
“After we supplied our mates to cowl at the least a few of these bills, they had been genuinely offended and requested us not to do that ever once more,” he stated. The Songdowon heart was initially constructed as a camp for overseas kids, a part of North Korea’s worldwide propaganda efforts.
Though the concept of Russian troops being rehabilitated in North Korea, one of many poorest and most remoted international locations on this planet, might sound uncommon, communist international locations had an extended custom of constructing solidarity by taking care of one another’s wounded troopers, orphans and widows throughout struggle occasions, stated Kim Deog Younger, a documentary filmmaker.
Mr. Kim is the director of “Kim Il Sung’s Kids,” a documentary about hundreds of struggle orphans that North Korea despatched to international locations like Poland, Hungary and East Germany in the course of the 1950-53 Korean Struggle earlier than bringing them dwelling in 1956.
“Kim Jong-un is rebuilding the outdated custom of solidarity as he sees the emergence of a new Chilly Struggle,” Mr. Kim stated.
From Mr. Matsegora’s interview, it was unclear when the wounded troopers from Russia arrived within the North or whether or not they and the Russian orphans had been nonetheless there. However in June final yr, the South Korean cable channel TV Chosun reported that North Korea was treating wounded Russian troopers in Wonsan earlier than it started sending its troops to Russia later that yr.
When President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia visited North Korea to restore a Chilly Struggle-era mutual protection treaty with its chief, Kim Jong-un, in June final yr, he had deliberate to journey to Wonsan to fulfill the Russian troopers, TV Chosun reported. However the deliberate go to to Wonsan was canceled when Mr. Putin’s arrival in North Korea was delayed, it added.
It additionally isn’t clear what kind of medical care the Russian troopers had been receiving in North Korea.
North Korea’s public well being system collapsed within the wake of a famine of the Nineties when docs had been compelled to make use of beer bottles to assemble intravenous methods, based on defectors. The nation nonetheless suffers an acute scarcity of medication. However Wonsan is likely one of the higher developed areas within the nation. Kim Jong-un has been constructing a seaside resort complicated there, hoping to draw overseas vacationers.
In a report printed on Monday, the Washington-based Institute for the Research of Struggle forged some doubt on the report that Russia was letting its wounded troops recuperate in North Korea.
“The Russian army command has reportedly been sending wounded personnel again into assault teams with out therapy, demonstrating a normal disregard for troopers’ well being,” it stated. Such brutal techniques had been “calling into query official Russian claims to be sending Russian troopers overseas for therapy, notably to North Korea,” it stated.
However the institute added that “the arrival of combat-experienced Russian troopers, notably in the event that they embrace officers or noncommissioned officers, to North Korea might enable the Russian army to work with North Korean forces and disseminate classes from the struggle in Ukraine whereas ostensibly recuperating.”
If confirmed, the recuperation of Russian troops in North Korea is the newest instance of deepening ties between the 2 international locations.
North Korea has despatched about 11,000 troopers to Russia, in addition to giant shipments of artillery shells, rockets and missiles, based on United States, South Korean and Ukrainian officers. In return, Russia has been offering North Korea with oil, meals and assist in upgrading weapons, South Korean officers stated. Russia can be accepting extra North Korean building employees, a key supply of money for Mr. Kim’s regime, they stated.
North Korea’s intervention got here with a heavy price, as 4,000 of its troops have been killed or injured in fight, based on Ukrainian and Western intelligence estimates. However South Korean intelligence officers have stated that regardless of the heavy loss, North Korea might ship extra troops to Russia.
“Our military and other people will invariably help and encourage the simply reason for the Russian military and other people to defend their sovereignty, safety and territorial integrity,” Mr. Kim stated in a speech on Saturday, based on state media.
Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed reporting.