North Korea has treated hundreds of Russian soldiers injured in Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Pyongyang told state media, as he revealed new details of the reclusive state’s backing for the Kremlin’s war effort.
Wounded Russian troops have been recovering in North Korean medical facilities, Ambassador Alexander Matsegora told state-run outlet Rossiyskaya Gazeta in an extensive interview published Sunday.
“A clear example of such a brotherly attitude (between Russian and North Korea) is the rehabilitation of hundreds of wounded soldiers … in Korean sanatoriums and hospitals,” he said.
The Russian envoy’s comments are the latest sign of deepening ties between the two countries, which have recently reached heights unseen since the Cold War.
North Korea has sent about 12,000 soldiers to Russia, according to Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence reports, following Moscow and Pyongyang’s pledge to help each other if either nation is attacked in a landmark defense pact signed last June.
About 4,000 North Korean troops have reportedly been killed or injured in combat after being deployed to Kursk since at least November to repel Ukraine’s incursion in the southern Russian border region, Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence said.
Meanwhile, Russia has also received thousands of shipping containers of munitions or munitions-related material from North Korea, and Moscow’s forces have launched North Korea-made missiles on Ukraine, according to US officials.
In his interview with state media, Matsegora claimed that North Korea had treated wounded Russian soldiers for free.
“When we offered to compensate our (North Korean) friends for at least part of their expenses, they were sincerely offended and asked us never to do it again,” he said.
Matsegora also said that children of Russian troops killed in Ukraine had vacationed in North Korea last summer, and Russia and North Korea are developing student exchanges.
Moscow supplies Pyongyang with coal, food, and medicine, he added.
South Korea’s intelligence service declined to comment on Matsegora’s remarks.
The extent of care potentially available to wounded Russian troops within North Korea’s dilapidated health infrastructure remains unclear.
Doctors who have defected in recent years often speak of poor working conditions and shortages of everything from medicine to basic health care supplies.
Some analysts also cast doubt on Matsegora’s troop recuperation remarks, pointing to Russia’s brutal military tactics as the war in Ukraine grinds toward its third anniversary.
Russia “has reportedly been sending wounded personnel back into assault groups without treatment, demonstrating a general disregard for soldiers’ health,” The Institute for the Study of War said in a news release Monday, “calling into question official Russian claims to be sending Russian soldiers abroad for treatment, particularly to North Korea.”
However, any arrival of experienced Russian troops, particularly officers, in North Korea “may allow the Russian military to work with North Korean forces and disseminate lessons from the war in Ukraine while ostensibly recuperating,” the US-based conflict monitor added.