Russia is sending soldiers who were wounded in the Ukraine war to recuperate in North Korea, its ambassador to Pyongyang told state media. The comment from Alexander Matsegora, Moscow’s diplomat to North Korea for over a decade, was part of a wide-ranging interview about cross-border relations that state-run outlet Rossiyskaya Gazeta published on Monday. “A clear example of such a brotherly attitude is the rehabilitation of hundreds of wounded soldiers of the SVO in Korean sanatoriums and hospitals,” he said. “SVO” is an abbreviation used by the Kremlin to describe the war in Ukraine as a “special military operation.”
Matsegora said North Korea had refused compensation from Moscow. “Everything related to staying in the DPRK, all this was absolutely free,” he said. Matsegora said there was a “warm attitude toward Russians” in North Korea and mentioned several joint student and internship programs in the works between the two countries. His remarks are yet another sign of how the strengthening alliance between Russian leader Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is playing out on the war front and beyond. Kim is estimated to have sent about 11,000 to 12,000 of his elite troops to fight against Ukraine, prompting concerns in the West that Pyongyang’s involvement would help its soldiers gain valuable combat experience. Analysts from the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, wrote that Russia sending wounded troops to North Korea could boost what Pyongyang can learn.
“The arrival of combat-experienced Russian soldiers, particularly if they include officers or non-commissioned 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,” they wrote. Matsegora also told state media that professors from Pyongyang would be stationed in major Russian cities such as Moscow, Kazan, Novosibirsk, and Vladivostok for a “long period of time.” There, they would teach the Korean language and teach joint classes, he said. ISW analysts said this indicates that Russia hopes to set the stage for further North Korean assistance in the war, or at least for help with its sanctioned wartime economy.
“The Kremlin may be setting informational conditions to justify an influx of North Korean citizens arriving in Russia to join either the Russian workforce or the Russian military,” the ISW analysts wrote. Matsegora’s comments also come as Russia’s Federal Security Service reported that the number of North Koreans entering Russia for work in 2024 had surged to over 13,000 crossings. That’s a 12-fold increase compared to 2023. Still, the exponential jump could also be due to a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, over 21,000 North Koreans were recorded traveling to Russia for work. Seoul’s National Intelligence Service said on Sunday that many of the North Korean workers sent to Russia last year were dispatched to construction sites.
Per the South Korean agency, the move has helped to fill a worker shortage in Russia as the Kremlin’s push to recruit more soldiers is draining the country’s young workforce. The NIS further accused Pyongyang and Moscow of using student visas to “dispatch workers without the international community’s knowledge.” The international community imposes a wide range of sanctions on North Korea, while the West has been actively trying to sanction key Russian sectors such as energy, finance, and defense due to its invasion of Ukraine.
