What does North Korea’s involvement in Ukraine mean for Kim Jong-un’s geopolitical ambitions? With Jean Lee
When Hyun-Seung Lee was 17 he was conscripted into the North Korean army. Meals were basic and conditions were poor.
“Most soldiers wash their clothes and bathe in streams or rivers … Soldiers must gather their own firewood from nearby mountains for heating and cooking,” he says.
Reports emerged in October last year of North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia in Ukraine. Hyun-Seung Lee, now living as a defector in the US, believes they will be gaining invaluable experience from the conflict.
The journalist Jean Lee spent years working in North Korea. She tells Helen Pidd that the presence of the country’s military in Ukraine is only the latest chapter in the long relationship between Russia and the “hermit kingdom”. The pair discuss the significance of Pyongyang’s rapidly expanding arms production, what the latest phase in its relationship with Moscow means for Kim Jong Un’s ambitions in terms of nuclear weapons, and how the development strengthens a broader autocratic alliance.