The Russian government has confirmed that hundreds of its wounded soldiers have been taken from the battlefield in Ukraine and Kursk and are being treated in North Korean hospitals.
Russia’s ambassador in Pyongyang Alexander Matsegora said in an interview published Sunday, "The treatment, the care, the food - everything related to staying in North Korea was absolutely free."
Recently renovated hospital in South Hamgyong Province. via KCNA
"When we offered to compensate our [North Korean] friends for at least part of their expenses, they were genuinely offended and asked us never to do it again," Matsegora added.
This is yet another sign of deepened cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang following Putin and Kim Jong Un signing a defense pact last summer, which has seen North Korea reportedly send some 10,000 of its troops to assist in helping Russia regain its southern Kursk territory.
The two countries actually share a tiny border in the far east, comprising about 11 miles of terrestrial border and 12 nautical miles of maritime border. Oil, guns, artillery, and missiles have been exchanged by rail - a trend which has greatly alarmed Washington and the West.
Last month Ukraine claimed that North Korean troops had been withdrawn or "disappeared" from the front lines in Kursk, but on Friday President Zelensky described the Russian army had "brought back in North Korean soldiers" who were carrying out "new assaults" in the region. Ukraine has partially occupied Kursk for over six months, since last August.
Zelensky claimed in the address that "hundreds of Russian and North Korean military" personnel had been "destroyed". Western intelligence officials have claimed that at least 1,000 DPRK troops had been killed since being introduced on the battlefield.
Reports in The Guardian and other Western outlets have offered some anecdotal and eyewitness evidence of significant amounts of North Koreans being treated for injuries in Kursk:
At dusk one afternoon last week, two dozen wounded North Korean soldiers were brought to one of the main hospitals in the Russian city of Kursk.
They were ushered into a specially designated floor, guarded by police, with access limited to translators and medical personnel.
“We were told in the morning to prepare for a special type of patient,” said one of the medical staff at the hospital who treated North Koreans.
“We’d heard rumours that North Koreans were fighting there, but I didn’t believe it. No one had actually seen them before,” the medic said. “I thought it was all fake news until they arrived,” the medic said, adding that most of them had shrapnel injuries.
A second medic at the scene said communication with the North Koreans was “impossible” without translators. They added that some North Koreans looked “frightened and nervous”.
On the battlefield itself, Russian units have complained about lack of easy communication with their North Korean allies, which has led to confusion and inefficiency.
North Korea uses Ukraine as a testing ground for its missiles," South Korea's representative to the UN said……😂 pic.twitter.com/dXsjISP5uI
It's expected that Russia and North Korea will continue cooperating on multiple levels. For example, regional media recalls the following:
Matsegora also said that orphans of Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine were hosted at the Songdowon International Children’s Camp in North Korea last summer. Russian President Vladimir Putin personally thanked “comrade” Kim Jong Un for organizing the children’s stay during his visit to Pyongyang in June.
Both countries are of course nuclear-armed, as well as highly sanctioned by the West. President Trump has lately said he's committed to seeing de-nuclearization on the Korean peninsula, but there's yet to be any real diplomatic breakthrough on the level of the face-to-face meetings with Kim during his first term in office.
Pyongyang's role in the Ukraine conflict has certainly complicated the potential for renewing dialogue with Trump, but the pressure could lessen if Trump-sponsored peace talks between Moscow and Kiev actually get off the ground.
