SEOUL, South Korea — The thousands of young people soldiers that North Korea sent to Russiasupposed to help fight against Ukraine, are mostly elite special forces, but that has not stopped speculation that they are being massacred because they have no combat experience, no familiarity with the terrain and that they would probably be dropped on the fiercest forces. battlefields.

It may be true, and soon. Observers say troops are already arriving at the front. From the North Korean perspective, however, these soldiers may not be as miserable as outsiders think. They might, in fact, view their Russia tour with pride and as a rare opportunity to earn big money, see a foreign country for the first time and get special treatment for their families back home, according to d former North Korean soldiers.

“They are too young and won’t understand exactly what that means. They will simply consider it an honor to be chosen among the many North Korean soldiers to go to Russia,” said Lee Woong-gil, a former member of the same special forces unit, the Storm Corps. He arrived in South Korea in 2007. “But I think most of them probably won’t come back alive.”

Concerns regarding North Korea’s likely participation The Russian-Ukrainian war was highlighted this week when the Pentagon said North Korea had sent about 10,000 troops to Russia and would likely fight Ukraine “over the next few weeks.” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Monday that some North Korean military units were already in the Russian border region of Kursk, where Russia is fighting an incursion into Ukraine.

The deployment of North Korean troops could mark a serious escalation in a war that has lasted for almost three years. This surprised many outside observers because North Korea has its own security problem, an ongoing standoff with the United States and South Korea over the situation. its nuclear program.

Heavy losses among North Korean troops would be a major political blow for the country’s 40-year-old leader, Kim Jong Un. But experts say Kim could see it as a way to get much-needed foreign currency and security support from Russia in exchange for participating in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“Kim Jong Un is taking a big gamble. If there are not a large number of casualties, he will get what he wants to a certain extent. But things will change a lot if many of its soldiers die in combat,” said Ahn Chan-il, a former first lieutenant in the North Korean army who now heads the Global Studies Institute think tank. North Koreans in Seoul.

The Storm Corps, also known as the 11th Corps, is one of Kim’s main units. Its main missions would be to infiltrate agents in South Korea, blow up important facilities in the South, and assassinate key figures in the event of war on the Korean Peninsula.

Lee, who served in the Storm Corps from 1998 to 2003, recalled that his unit received better food and supplies than other units, but many members still suffered from malnutrition and tuberculosis.

Despite a progressive economic recovery In North Korea over the past 30 years, defectors say the average monthly salary of ordinary North Korean workers and soldiers is less than $1. They argue that many people engage in capitalist activities to earn a living because the state’s rationing system remains largely broken.

Russia is expected to pay all costs related to deploying North Korean troops, including their salaries, which observers estimate to be at least $2,000 per month per person. About 90 to 95 percent of their allocations will likely go to Kim’s coffers, and the rest to the soldiers. This means that a year of service in Russia would earn a North Korean soldier between $1,200 and $2,400. That’s important enough to entice many young soldiers to volunteer for risky missions in Russia, former soldiers say.

Ahn said North Korea would likely offer other incentives intended to raise soldiers’ social status, such as membership in the ruling Workers’ Party and the right to settle in Pyongyang, the country’s showcase capital. Kang Mi-Jin, a defector who runs a company analyzing the North Korean economy, said even family members of soldiers sent to Russia could receive benefits such as good housing or entry into good universities.

Choi Jung-hoon, a former first lieutenant in the North Korean army, said serving on foreign soil would attract many soldiers eager to experience other countries for the first time.

North Koreans do not have access to foreign information and need state permission to travel between provinces in the country. North Korean construction, logging and other workers sent overseas to bring in foreign currency have often been called “slaves” by international human rights groups. But defectors testify that these overseas jobs are often better than staying in North Korea, and many have resorted to bribery and family connections to get them.

“North Korean soldiers would see going to Russia as a unique opportunity,” Ahn said.

Ahn and other observers say those views could change if soldiers saw their colleagues die in large numbers. They say many North Korean soldiers could surrender to Ukrainian forces and demand resettlement to South Korea.

North Korean soldiers have been trained in the mountainous terrain of the Korean Peninsula and are unfamiliar with the largely flat battlefields of the Russo-Ukrainian War. They also don’t understand modern warfare, including the use of drones, because North Korea hasn’t fought a major battle since the end of the Korean War (1950-1953), experts say.

“My heart hurt,” said Choi, now the head of an activist group in Seoul, when he saw a Video from Ukraine purportedly showing North Korean soldiers of short stature, believed to be in their late teens or early 20s.

“No one would think that they will go to Russia to die. … But I think they are cannon fodder because they will surely be killed when they are sent to the most dangerous sites,” Choi said .

Leader Kim Jong Un may also hope that his troop offer will push Russia to share the sophisticated, highly sensitive technology he needs to perfect his nuclear-capable missiles. This transfer could depend on the length of the war and the number of additional troops Kim sends.

Nam Sung-wook, former director of a think tank run by South Korea’s intelligence agency, said North Korea would likely receive hundreds of millions of dollars from soldiers’ salaries. The soldiers will have first-hand experience of modern warfare but will likely die in large numbers, and Russia will be reluctant to give up its high-tech missile technology, he said.

“North Korea will continue to hide its troop deployments from its own people because the public will be agitated if they know its soldiers are being sent abroad to be killed,” said Nam, who is now a professor at the Korea University in South Korea.