North Korea is restoring its Cold War-era comradeship with Russia by looking after Russian soldiers wounded in the war against Ukraine, as well as hosting Russian children who lost parents in the fighting, according to Moscow’s ambassador to Pyongyang.
The presence of hundreds of wounded Russian troops, as well as an unspecified number of Russian war orphans, in North Korea was revealed by Alexander Matsegora, the Russian ambassador to North Korea, in an interview published on Sunday by the state-run news outlet Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
Mr. Matsegora made the revelation, which could not be independently corroborated, while emphasizing the friendly ties between Russia and North Korea. It is also notable as one of the first public admissions by either side of North Korea’s practical support for its ally’s war effort. The bilateral relations have deepened rapidly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine three years ago, and North Korean troops have recently started fighting alongside the Russian forces.
North Korea has suffered thousands of casualties in the war. But it has also been taking care of injured Russian soldiers, according to Mr. Matsegora.
“One of the clear examples of our brotherly ties is the rehabilitation of hundreds of soldiers wounded in the special military operation at Korean sanitariums and clinics,” the envoy said, referring to the war against Ukraine.
Last year, North Korea also received Russian children whose fathers died on the battlefield, housing them in the Songdowon children’s recreation center in Wonsan, on the east coast of North Korea, he said. The North Koreans were looking after the Russian soldiers and children free of charge, he said. The Russian envoy offered no details about the children, including how long they planned to stay in North Korea.
“When we offered our friends to cover at least some of those expenses, they were genuinely offended and asked us not to do this ever again,” he said. The Songdowon center was originally built as a camp for foreign children, part of North Korea’s international propaganda efforts.
Although the idea of Russian troops being rehabilitated in North Korea, one of the poorest and most isolated countries in the world, may sound unusual, communist countries had a long tradition of building solidarity by looking after each other’s wounded soldiers, orphans and widows during war times, said Kim Deog Young, a documentary filmmaker.
Mr. Kim is the director of “Kim Il Sung’s Children,” a documentary about thousands of war orphans that North Korea sent to countries like Poland, Hungary and East Germany during the 1950-53 Korean War before bringing them home in 1956.
“Kim Jong-un is rebuilding the old tradition of solidarity as he sees the emergence of a new Cold War,” Mr. Kim said.
From Mr. Matsegora’s interview, it was unclear when the wounded soldiers from Russia arrived in the North or whether they and the Russian orphans were still there. But in June last year, the South Korean cable channel TV Chosun reported that North Korea was treating wounded Russian soldiers in Wonsan before it began sending its troops to Russia later that year.
When President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia visited North Korea to restore a Cold War-era mutual defense treaty with its leader, Kim Jong-un, in June last year, he had planned to travel to Wonsan to meet the Russian soldiers, TV Chosun reported. But the planned visit to Wonsan was canceled when Mr. Putin’s arrival in North Korea was delayed, it added.
It also isn’t clear what type of medical care the Russian soldiers were receiving in North Korea.
North Korea’s public health system collapsed in the wake of a famine of the 1990s when doctors were forced to use beer bottles to construct intravenous systems, according to defectors. The country still suffers an acute shortage of medicine. But Wonsan is one of the better developed areas in the country. Kim Jong-un has been building a seaside resort complex there, hoping to attract foreign tourists.
In a report published on Monday, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War cast some doubt on the report that Russia was letting its wounded troops recuperate in North Korea.
“The Russian military command has reportedly been sending wounded personnel back into assault groups without treatment, demonstrating a general disregard for soldiers’ health,” it said. Such brutal tactics were “calling into question official Russian claims to be sending Russian soldiers abroad for treatment, particularly to North Korea,” it said.
But the institute added that “the arrival of combat-experienced Russian soldiers, particularly if they include officers or noncommissioned officers, to North Korea may allow the Russian military to work with North Korean forces and disseminate lessons from the war in Ukraine while ostensibly recuperating.”
If confirmed, the recuperation of Russian troops in North Korea is the latest example of deepening ties between the two countries.
North Korea has sent about 11,000 soldiers to Russia, as well as large shipments of artillery shells, rockets and missiles, according to United States, South Korean and Ukrainian officials. In return, Russia has been providing North Korea with oil, food and help in upgrading weapons, South Korean officials said. Russia is also accepting more North Korean construction workers, a key source of cash for Mr. Kim’s regime, they said.
North Korea’s intervention came with a heavy cost, as 4,000 of its troops have been killed or injured in combat, according to Ukrainian and Western intelligence estimates. But South Korean intelligence officials have said that despite the heavy loss, North Korea may send more troops to Russia.
“Our army and people will invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity,” Mr. Kim said in a speech on Saturday, according to state media.
Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed reporting.
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