Will Russia exposure leave North Korean troops wanting more?

North Korea’s decision to send troops into Russia’s war with Ukraine is sure to reinforce Pyongyang’s partnership with Moscow but will also expose thousands of North Korean soldiers to foreign ideas and a different way of life.
While exact numbers are hard to verify, Western intelligence says over 10,000 North Korean troops have already been deployed to the Kursk region to counter Ukraine’s incursion into Russia.
Even though they are traveling to a warzone, they will likely see the relative wealth of Russian cities and towns at some point during their long journey between Russia’s eastern border in Asia and its western border in Europe. They will also likely receive better food and wages than what they would expect in their homeland.
“Many of these soldiers are just humble farm boys from the countryside or junior officers who will see the world beyond North Korea’s borders for the first time. That will certainly make them understand that their country is isolated and extremely poor,” Andrei Lankov, a Russian-born professor of history and international relations at Seoul’s Kookmin University, told DW.
“Even if much of what they see will be around the front lines, battle-damaged villages and so on, they will still have seen the countryside of Russia before they get there. They will inevitably begin to ask themselves why their country is not rich like Russia.”
Those who survive the front lines will return home with ideas that contradict the regime propaganda, which insists North Korea is one of the happiest and most advanced nations in the world. However, analysts warn the soldiers would avoid voicing any critical sentiment, even to their family and friends. North Korea’s secret police is infamous for treating any criticism of the regime or society as treason and doling out severe punishment.
“These people have grown up knowing what they cannot say, and they will not be suicidal heroes and speak out about their experiences,” Lankov said. “They will also benefit from the aura of being heroes of the nation, and Kim Jong Un [the North Korean leader] will reward them generously.
“There will be an impact on these soldiers from what they see and do in Russia, but we cannot expect that to be politically meaningful for a couple of decades, at least.”
For many decades, North Korea’s government has worked to cut off its people from any foreign ideas. And this campaign has only grown more fierce in recent years, with authorities cracking down hard on anyone caught with foreign movies or music and handing out extended prison terms to its citizens who try to flee to China. Certain clothes or hairstyles — if officials deem them to be influenced from abroad — are also used as pretext to arrest people in the isolated country.
In Russia, however, officers and minders will not be able to keep North Korean soldiers completely shielded from outside influence, says Dan Pinkston, a professor of international relations at the Seoul campus of Troy University.
“There have been reports that North Korean troops have been airlifted from training facilities in the Russian Far East, and it is possible they decided to fly them simply because they did not want them to see Russian towns from trains as they crossed the country,” he told DW, adding it was very likely to be the first time many of them had taken a flight.
“They will very quickly realize the backwardness of North Korea, although I imagine the officers will try to keep the men segregated from the general population as much as possible to limit their interactions.”
Given the regime’s track record on people who have been overseas, including those sent to work on construction sites and logging camps in Russia or restaurants and factories in China, it is also likely that returning troops will undergo a period of assessment and re-education before they are permitted to return to North Korean society.
Lankov, the Kookmin University professor, agrees that the returning soldiers would be “closely monitored.”
“That may be more difficult when they are in Russia, and they are experiencing battlefield conditions, but those that come back will be aware that if they talk about what they saw, it could be dangerous for them.”
However, Lankov believes that the experience of life beyond North Korea and “the obvious prosperity” of other countries will fester within them.
“I do not expect them to start a revolution immediately, of course, but captains who serve in Ukraine will go on to become generals in a few years, and they will continue to have their doubts. Over time, those doubts about the North Korean system could become meaningful.”
Edited by: Darko Janjevic