Ryu Seong-hyeon does not need to imagine what the thousands of North Korean soldiers deployed on the Russian front lines may be thinking now. Not long ago, he was one of them.
In 2019, Ryu crossed the Korean Demilitarized Zone to freedom, a rare defection. He had a profile that mirrors that of many of the newly deployed troops today: young, malnourished and blind to the outside world. Before choosing to flee, Ryu remembers moving bricks at construction sites and shivering outside while standing guard. He ate soft rice mixed with corn. Meat was a holiday gift.
Back then, if he had been ordered to fight with the Russians, Ryu, now 28, would have given a resounding response: “Thank you.” His reasoning: “Wouldn’t at least the food be better?”
North Korean fighters in Russia have been branded as mercenaries, cannon fodder and second-rate. But what is overlooked, former North Korean soldiers and other military experts argue, is how willing many of these soldiers are to die and how eager they might be to escape the harsh conditions at home.
The roughly 10,000 North Korean troops deployed in the Kursk region, where Russia is trying to repel a Ukrainian incursion, are unlikely to change the course of the painful two-and-a-half-year war. But they provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with much-needed manpower and pose new threats to the deadlocked front lines. One of the biggest mysteries is the level of determination these North Korean troops will bring to a battle far from home and for an unknown cause.
The Ukrainian military, like the Russian forces it fights in regions like Donetsk, also needs ways to bolster its ranks. Photo: Serhii Korovayny for WSJ
On Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said some North Korean soldiers had already engaged in small-scale fighting near the front lines. A day later, South Korea assessed that the new arrivals had not yet engaged in large-scale combat. The United States has said it expects the North Koreans to begin fighting in the coming days.
Almost all troops sent to Russia – which include special forces fighters – would have a similar set of motivations, former North Korean soldiers say. They have been indoctrinated from an early age to sacrifice everything for the supreme leader. Children are urged in their school textbooks to demonstrate their loyalty to the regime by volunteering to be the target of hypothetical artillery attacks.
The deployment of troops would be seen as the opportunity of a lifetime to return money and glory to Kim Jong Un‘s regime. Those who die are valued; those who survive return as heroes.
“North Korean soldiers are convinced that they must do anything for Kim,” Ryu said.
Even North Korea’s top troops lack modern equipment and resources, putting them at a disadvantage relative to special forces trained in the United States, Europe or South Korea, said David Maxwell, a retired Army Special Forces colonel. from the United States with extensive experience in Asia. Many of North Korea’s soldiers, including special forces, spend most of their time doing agricultural or construction work, he added.
“North Korean special operations forces training produces highly disciplined soldiers with intense loyalty, often willing to take extreme risks with limited equipment,” Maxwell said.
The Russians and Ukrainians have Armed Forces in the hundreds of thousands, and both sides face attrition and struggles to replenish their ranks. Russia can recruit more than 30,000 new troops a month, although it often loses the same number dead or wounded in Ukraine, according to Western estimates. Ukraine is suffering less pronounced casualty rates, although precise numbers are unclear.
Ukraine’s Sumy region shares a border with Kursk, where Russian forces are trying to repel a Ukrainian invasion. Photo: Svet Jacqueline for WSJ
What worries the North is its ability to send more soldiers. North Korea has one of the largest standing armies in the world, with about 1.2 million soldiers, and several million more in reserve, according to South Korean estimates. The Kim regime has the largest special forces unit in the world, with around 200,000 men, according to military experts.
Soldiers sent to Russia are expected to receive a monthly salary of around $2,000, much of which will go to the regime, according to South Korean officials. Still, this is a staggering sum for a nation that lives on a monthly income of just a few dollars.
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For decades, North Korea has struggled to provide enough food to its people due to international isolation and economic mismanagement, compounded by natural disasters. About 45% of North Korea’s population of 26 million is undernourished, according to a report by the World Food Programme. Even the Army, which usually receives special privileges, suffers from chronic food shortages.
The special forces occupy a prominent place in the North Korean military hierarchy. They are better fed than other units, with more intense training in infiltration, infrastructure destruction, and assassination. State television has aired images highlighting the vaudevillian aspects of their training: troops breaking vials with their bare hands and shirtless combatants being beaten with wooden clubs. Others bend metal bars.
In September, Kim oversaw special forces scouting and strike exercises involving the country’s “invincible revolutionary Armed Forces,” as state media called them. Each North Korean fighter, the report stated, was the equivalent of 100 enemy soldiers. Kim’s approval filled the troops, whose cheers roared like thunder, with “boundless excitement, joy, great pride and self-esteem.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervises a test launch of a new 600mm multiple rocket launcher at an undisclosed location in North Korea, September 13, 2024. Photo: Reuters
Lee Hyun-seung served in North Korea’s elite “Storm Corps” special forces unit before fleeing about a decade ago. In addition to military exercises, Lee, now 39, remembers attending daily ideological training sessions, where he memorized Kim’s orders and repeated his willingness to die for the supreme leader, a practice that no doubt continues among those who are sent to Russia.
“They can be sacrificed without having much impact on the war,” Lee said. “But they wouldn’t dare question the leader’s orders to go to Russia.”
North Korea often displays flashy military equipment in raucous parades, from new tanks to artillery rockets and drones. But that advanced equipment is likely not integrated at the troop level. The country lacks the funds to adequately supply its Army with such high-priced equipment.
The North Korean newcomers were taught about 100 basic military terms in Russian – including “fire” and “in position” – although they appeared to have had difficulty communicating, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers late from last month.
Given the interest in increasing Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, the training and feeding situation for soldiers has not changed dramatically since Kim took power in December 2011, said Bang Jong-kwan, a former South Korean army general. That limits their possible role in Russia to being foot soldiers, due to the language barrier and lack of familiarity with the terrain, he said.
“They will have heavy casualties because Russia is very unlikely to provide them with advanced equipment or information,” Bang said.
Residents gather next to their destroyed cars and an apartment building damaged by a Russian drone strike, in Odessa, Ukraine, on November 9, 2024. Photo: Reuters
Still, many North Korean soldiers would consider the risks worth it. Those who have heard of the North Korean pilots who flew in combat against American planes during the Vietnam War know that a foreign deployment elevates a soldier’s status, said Sim Ju-il, who was a North Korean military officer for 30 years before. to escape to South Korea in 1998.
Pilots who returned from Vietnam were welcomed as heroes and promoted to senior officers, Sim, 74, recalled. Even the wives of pilots who died on the battlefield were given elevated status in the Workers’ Party, granting them access to prestigious jobs.
It is that blind devotion to the Kim regime that Sim hopes to break by going to the Ukrainian front. He said there are approximately 300 other former North Korean military personnel who are also willing to go. If sent to the front, they hope to create “psychological disturbances” by sending anti-regime leaflets and creating broadcasts to persuade North Korean soldiers to surrender or defect, he said.
“I want them to know that they have been lied to,” Sim said. “There is no need to die for your loyalty.”
Translated from English by LT Mundo.
