North Korea restores its camaraderie from the Cold War with Russia by dealing with Russian soldiers injured in the war against Ukraine, as well as organizing Russian children who have lost parents in the fighting, according to the Moscow ambassador to Pyongyang.
The presence of hundreds of Russian soldiers injured, as well as an unspecified number of orphans of the Russian war, in North Korea were revealed by Alexandre Matsegora, the Russian ambassador to North Korea, in a interview Published Sunday by the media managed by the Rossiyskaya Gazeta State.
Mr. Matsegora made the revelation, which could not be corroborated independently, while highlighting the friendly ties between Russia and North Korea. It is also remarkable as one of the first public admissions on each side of the practical support of North Korea to the war effort of its ally. Bilateral relations have been deepened quickly since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia three years ago, and the North Korean troops recently began to fight alongside the Russian forces.
North Korea suffered thousands of victims during the war. But he also took care of the injured Russian soldiers, according to Mr. Matsegora.
“One of the clear examples of our fraternal ties is the rehabilitation of hundreds of soldiers injured during the special military operation of sanitariums and Korean clinics,” said the war, referring to the war against Ukraine.
Last year, North Korea also received Russian children whose fathers died on the battlefield, housing them in the children’s leisure center in Songdowon in Wonsan, on the east coast of North Korea, he said. The North Koreans took care of Russian soldiers and children for free, he said. The Russian envoy did not offer any details on children, including how long they were planning to stay in North Korea.
“When we offered our friends to cover at least some of these expenses, they were truly offended and asked us to never do this again,” he said. The Songdowon Center was initially built as a camp for foreign children, which is part of the international propaganda efforts in North Korea.
Although the idea that Russian troops are rehabilitated in North Korea, one of the poorest and most isolated countries in the world may seem unusual, the communist countries had a long tradition of solidarity by taking care of the wounded soldiers , orphans and widows during the Times war, said Kim Deog Young, a documentary filmmaker.
Mr. Kim is the director of “Kim Il Sung children“, A documentary on thousands of war orphans that North Korea sent to countries like Poland, Hungary and East Germany during the Korean War of 1950-1953 before bringing them back to The house in 1956.
“Kim Jong-un reconstructs the old tradition of solidarity when he sees the emergence of a new cold war,” said Kim.
According to Mr. Matsegora’s interview, it was not clear when the injured soldiers of Russia arrived in the North or that they and the Russian orphans are still there. But in June of last year, the South Korean cable channel TV Chosun reported that North Korea treated Russian soldiers injured in Wonsan before starting to send its troops to Russia later that year.
When President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia went to North Korea to restore a mutual defense treaty from the Cold War era with his leader, Kim Jong-Un, in June of last year, he had planned to go to Wonsan to meet the Russian soldiers, TV Chosun reported. But the visit scheduled in Wonsan was canceled when Mr. Putin’s arrival in North Korea was delayed, he added.
Nor is it clear what type of medical care that Russian soldiers received in North Korea.
The North Korea’s public health system collapsed following a famine from the 1990s when doctors were forced to use beer bottles to build intravenous systems, according to defectors. The country still suffers from an acute medicine shortage. But Wonsan is one of the most developed areas in the country. Kim Jong-un has built a seaside resort there, in the hope of attracting foreign tourists.
In a report Published on Monday, the Institute for the Washington War Study put in doubt about the report that Russia let its wounded troops recover in North Korea.
“The Russian military command would have returned injured staff to aggression without treatment, demonstrating a general contempt for the health of soldiers,” he said. These brutal tactics “question the Russian official claims sending Russian soldiers abroad for treatment, especially in North Korea,” he said.
But the Institute added that “the arrival of Russian soldiers experienced in combat, in particular if they include officers or non-commissioned officers, in North Korea, the Russian soldiers can work with the North Korean forces and distribute War lessons in Ukraine while ostensibly recovering. “”
If confirmed, the recovery of Russian troops in North Korea is the last example of deepening the links between the two countries.
North Korea has sent around 11,000 soldiers to Russia, as well as large expeditions of artillery, rockets and missiles, according to the United States, South Korean and Ukrainian officials. In return, Russia has provided oil, food, food and help in North Korea to the modernization of weapons, said South Korean officials. Russia also accepts more North Korean construction workers, a key source of money for Mr. Kim’s regime, they said.
The intervention of North Korea came with a high cost, because 4,000 of its troops were killed or injured in combat, according to Ukrainian and Western intelligence estimates. But South Korean intelligence officials said that despite the heavy loss, North Korea could send more troops to Russia.
“Our army and our people will invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and the people to defend their sovereignty, their security and their territorial integrity,” Kim said in a speech on Saturday, according to the media of State .
Nataliya Vasilyeva Contributed reports.
