North Korea has offered Russia 100,000 “volunteers” to help in the war against Ukraine, Russian state television said.
“There are reports that 100,000 North Korean volunteers are willing to participate in the conflict,” talk show host Igor Korotchenko told Russia’s Channel One, the New York Post reported.
The reports come as Russian military power has been exhausted after its failed attempt to take key parts of Ukraine, including the capital Kiev.
Some estimates put the number of killed Russian soldiers at 15,000 to 25,000. Taking into account more than five months of the war, that brings the number of casualties in Russia to about 100 soldiers per day.
Korotchenko also alluded to reports indicating that Russia has invited North Korean “builders” to repair the Russian-occupied Donbas.
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Alexander Matsegora, Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, said in an interview in July: “Korean builders who are highly qualified, hardworking and ready to work in the most difficult conditions will play a very serious role in building the destroyed infrastructure in Donbas .
Korotchenko called North Korean builders “resident and undemanding” and said they are especially “motivated”.
North Korea and Russia have experienced closer cooperation after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with North Korea being one of the few provinces in the world to recognize the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LNR) as independent.
Matsegora claimed in the interview that North Korea does not receive anything for cooperation with Russia, saying it was simply acting on its “conscience”.
“North Korea is one of the few countries that can afford to have a completely independent foreign policy. No one — nor Russia with China, let alone the United States — can force North Koreans to do or not do anything,” the ambassador added, pledging to help North Korea fight its sanctions on the global stage. .
“In the new reality in which we exist, in which the DPRK exists, in which the republics of Donbass will exist, we have to get used to living in conditions of all kinds of constraints,” concluded Matsegora.
