Testimony alleges Ukraine children sent to North Korea

Testimony before the U.S. Senate revealed that at least two Ukrainian teenagers abducted by Russian forces after the outbreak of war in February 2022 are being held in forced confinement in North Korea. The minors were reportedly transferred to a military detention facility in North Korea, where they have been subjected to indoctrination promoting anti-American and anti-Japanese ideology.

Kateryna Rashevska, an attorney with the Regional Center for Human Rights in Ukraine, testified at a Senate hearing in Washington, D.C. on the forced abduction and detention of Ukrainian minors, according to the Kyiv Independent on Dec. 3.

Rashevska identified the confirmed abducted children as Misha, a 12-year-old from Donetsk, and Liza, a 16-year-old from Simferopol. Both were reportedly taken to the Songdowon military detention facility in North Korea, roughly 9,000 kilometers from their hometowns. She said the teenagers were indoctrinated with messages such as “destroy Japanese militarists” and met a North Korean military officer involved in the 1968 attack on the USS Pueblo, which left nine American service members dead.

According to the Ukrainian government, Russia has forcibly relocated at least 19,546 children and teenagers from occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia since the war began. This testimony marks the first indication that at least two of them were transferred to North Korea. Historical records held by the Korea Center at the University of Tübingen and the Polish National Archives show that, in the years following the Korean War, North Korea sent several thousand war orphans to countries including China, Romania, and Hungary for ideological education.

Many Ukrainian children taken to Russia have been adopted by Russian families and enrolled in programs designed to integrate them into Russian society, including Russian language instruction. Orphans whose parents were killed during the war have reportedly been confined in detention camps inside Russia, where they received various forms of military training. Rashevska said up to 165 facilities are holding Ukrainian children, with similar sites reportedly existing in North Korea and Belarus.

Some Ukrainian estimates place the number of children taken by Russia as high as 300,000. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 1 that only 1,859 abducted children have been returned. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin on charges related to the forced abduction of children and other alleged war crimes.


Keun-Hyung Yoo noel@donga.com