- The wounded Russian forces are sent to North Korea medical facilities, for every Russian official.
- The Ambassador of Moscow in Pyongyang, Alexander Matagora, said the deal involves “hundreds” of forces.
- War analysts said it might give North Korea an opportunity to learn more Ukraine’s war.
Russia is sending soldiers wounded in the Ukraine war to recover in North Korea, its ambassador to Pyongyang said to the government media.
Alexander Mattegora’s comment, Moscow diplomat to North Korea for more than a decade, was part of a Wide -range interview On the relations across the border published by the state port Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Monday.
“A clear example of such a brotherly position is the rehabilitation of hundreds of wounded soldiers in SVO in the Korean clinic and hospitals,” he said. “SVO” is an abbreviation that the Kremlin uses to describe the war in Ukraine as “a special military operation.”
Matigura said North Korea refused compensation from Moscow.
“Everything related to staying in DPRK, all of this was completely free,” he said.
Matigura said that there is a “warm position towards the Russians” in North Korea and mentioned many students ’programs and joint training in business between the two countries.
His statements are another sign of how the coalition between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un play on the war front and outside.
It is estimated that Kim has sent between 11,000 to 12,000 of his elite forces to fight against Ukraine, prompting fears in the West that Pyongyang’s participation will help her soldiers gain valuable combat experience.
Analysts from Institute of War StudyA research in Washington wrote that Russia, which sends the wounded forces to North Korea, could enhance what Pyongyang can learn.
“The arrival of the Russian soldiers telling the fighting, especially if they are officers or non -commissioned officers, may allow North Korea to the Russian army to work with the North Korean forces and spread lessons from the war in Ukraine while they are recovering outwardly,” they wrote. “
Matigorra also told government media that Pyongyang’s professors will be stationed in major Russian cities such as Moscow, Kazan, Novemberskk and Vladivostok for a “long period of time.” There, they knew the Korean language and knew the common classes.
ISW analysts said this indicates that Russia hopes to put this stage for more assistance in North Korea in the war, or at least to help its economy in wartime.
“The Kremlin may be putting media conditions to justify the flow of North Korean citizens who arrive in Russia to join the Russian workforce or the Russian army,” ISW analysts wrote.
Metrigora’s comments also come at a time when the Russian Federal Security Service stated that the number of North Koreans enter Russia to work in 2024 was. It rose to more than 13,000 crossings. This is an increase of 12 times compared to 2023.
However, the si jump can also be due to the recovery from the Covid-19s. In 2019, more than 21,000 North Koreans were registered traveling to Russia to work.
Seoul National Intelligence Service On Sunday, many North Korean workers who were sent to Russia last year were sent to construction sites.
At the South Korean Agency, this step helped fill in the shortage of workers in Russia as the Kremlin batch to recruit more soldiers drain the workforce in the country.
NIS also accused Pyongyang and Moscow of using student visas to “send workers without knowing the international community.”
The international community imposes a wide range of sanctions on North Korea, while the West was actively trying to punish the main Russian sectors such as energy, financing and defense because of its invasion of Ukraine.
