North Korean defectors report that Pyongyang is likely keeping the deployment of soldiers to fight for Russia’s interests in Ukraine a secret, even from the soldiers’ families. However, the news is expected to spread, causing anxiety and sorrow.
Western intelligence estimates around 10,000 North Korean troops are already in Russia, mostly near the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have reclaimed territory.
“North Korean mothers who sent their children to Russia must feel unimaginable pain,” said Kim Jeong-ah, a defector and former first lieutenant in North Korea’s army, in an interview with Voice of America. Kim, now leading a women’s rights NGO in Seoul, added, “Families suffer silently due to regime pressure, unable to express their fears.”
It is widely believed that Kim Jong Un’s elite “Storm Corps” forces have been mobilized to support Russia. Defector Lee Hyun Seung, a former Storm Corps soldier now in the U.S., noted that the North Korean regime does not inform families about overseas deployments to avoid military secrets being exposed.
Lee suggested that word-of-mouth could spread the news internally, leading to potential dissent over the violation of human rights, such as deploying troops without family notification. If families discover their sons have been sacrificed, it could deeply shake the regime.
Tae Young-ho, a former North Korean diplomat, now in South Korea, said during a Washington forum that despite Pyongyang’s efforts to keep troop deployment secret, soldier deaths would be hard to conceal. With North Korea’s low birth rate, families are unlikely to accept losing their children to defend Russia instead of their homeland.
