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Putin and Kim Jong-un recently signed a defense agreement. The North Korean leader plans to send pioneers to Ukraine as early as July.
Moscow/Pyongyang – After Wladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un signed a new defense agreement on June 19, military aid from North Korea could be provided to the Ukraine War arrive sooner than expected. The first army engineers are expected to arrive in the Russian-controlled People’s Republic of Donetsk as early as July, reports the South Korean news channel TV Chosun citing government sources.
Article 4 of the agreement that Kremlin ruler Putin concluded with his Asian autocrat friend obliges the North Korean state news agency KCNA According to the report, in the event of war, both parties will use all available means to provide military and other support. A South Korean government official said TV Chosun on the objective of the allegedly impending deployment: “The purpose is to protect the city destroyed by the battle [Donezk, Red.] rebuild.”
North Korea to send soldiers to Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine
Shortly after North Korea recognized the independence of the Donetsk People’s Republic in July 2022, its ambassador to Russia held official talks with representatives of the Donbass separatists. He announced his country’s fundamental willingness to send workers to the occupied eastern Ukraine for reconstruction. The difference: There was no mention of military personnel.
As was the case then, the monetary incentive for Kim Jong-un’s potential involvement in Ukraine is likely to be the decisive factor today. According to the North Korea-focused news portal NK News The average monthly salary in the dictatorship is 5-10,000 North Korean won. That is about five to ten euros. What a deployment in Ukraine promises is much higher: “Soldiers of the deployed engineer units will earn an income of about 800 US dollars per month,” a South Korean government official told TV Chosun.
Little would remain of the high wages by North Korean standards
One might think that the situation here is similar to that in Russia, where Putin lures poorly paid provincial citizens from Krasnoyarsk or Dagestan to the front in Ukraine with comparatively princely military salaries. However, the soldiers are unlikely to keep the pioneer salaries, which are exorbitantly high by North Korean standards, but are instead confiscated by the state.
This is a well-known practice, because “from North Korea’s perspective, it is also a way to earn foreign currency,” the South Korean government official continued. Foreign currency is money reserves in foreign currencies, the size of which serves as an indicator of a country’s economic strength. In addition, and this may be more important for Kim, it can be used to pay for foreign imported goods.
Kim Jong-un exports workers and soldiers to earn foreign currency
North Korea usually receives foreign currency in return for goods it exports. According to the German Foreign Trade Agency (GTAI), China was by far its largest trading partner and foreign currency supplier between 2016 and 2022. Since extensive sanctions prohibit many Western countries from trading with the dictatorship, Dictator Kim sends citizens of his country abroad to work – and pocket the bulk of their wages as foreign currency.
Such imported workers were used in the past in the Czech Republic and Poland, among others, until a new sanctions regime in 2017 U.N.-member states to expel all North Korean workers from their territory. In China, on the other hand, violent protests by North Korean workers last January left one dead and three seriously injured. In addition to poor working conditions, the reason for this is said to have been the practice of transferring their wages directly to Kim’s party in Pyongyang without their knowledge.
UN Security Council: 100,000 North Koreans work abroad for Kim
According to an estimate by the UN Security Council’s Panel of Experts, by 2023, about 100,000 North Koreans were working in 40 countries, bringing the regime about $500 million. Radio Free Asia reported, citing anonymous sources, that there are already tens of thousands of workers from North Korea in Russia and China.
The alleged deployment of army engineers to the Russian-controlled separatist republic of Donetsk represents the latest development of this business model. Disguised as civilian workers, North Korean engineers are said to have long worked abroad, for example in Qatar during the construction of buildings for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The recent defense agreement with Putin now gives Kim the opportunity to handle what he does openly anyway.
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