Hundreds of wounded Russian soldiers treated in North Korea say envoy in pyongyang

Cnn
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North Korea has treated hundreds of Russian soldiers wounded in Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Pyongyang State Media told as he revealed new details about the backing of the recurring state for the Kremlin’s war effort.

Wounded Russian troops have been asked in North Korean medical facilities, Ambassador Alexander Matsegora told the state marketing market Rossiyskaya Gazeta in a comprehensive conversation published on 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 broadcast comments are the latest sign of elaborating ties between the two countries that have recently reached heights that have been unseen since the Cold War.

North Korea has sent about 12,000 soldiers to Russia, according to Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence reports, after Moscow and Pyongyang’s promise to help each other if one of the nation is attacked in a milestone defense pact signed last June.

About 4,000 North Korean troops have allegedly been killed or wounded in battle after being deployed to Kursk since at least November to reject Ukraine’s entry into the southern Russian border area, Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence said.

Meanwhile, Russia has also received thousands of shipping containers with ammunition or ammunition-related material from North Korea, and Moscow’s forces have launched North Korea-made missiles in 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 genuinely offended and never asked us to do it again,” he said.

Matsegora also said that children of Russian troops who were killed in Ukraine had the holiday in North Korea last summer, and Russia and North Korea develop student exchange.

Moscow delivers pyongyang with coal, food and medicine, he added.

South Korea’s Intelligence Service refused to comment on Matsegora’s comments.

The extent of care that is potentially available to wounded Russian troops in North Korea’s fallen health infrastructure remains unclear.

Doctors who have rejected in recent years often talk about poor working conditions and lack of everything from medicine to basic healthcare.

Some analysts also cast doubt on Matsegora’s troop conference remarks and point to Russia’s brutal military tactics when the war in Ukraine is sanded against her third anniversary.

Russia “Allegedly sent wounded staff back in assault groups without treatment, demonstrating a general ignoring of the soldiers’ health,” The Institute of the Study of War Said in a news message Monday, “to question official Russian claims to send Russian soldiers abroad for treatment, especially to North Korea.”

However, any arrival of experienced Russian troops, especially officers, in North Korea may “possibly give the Russian military the opportunity to work with North Korean forces and disseminate lessons from the war in Ukraine while they seem to recover,” it added the USA- based conflict monitor.