Soldiers in Exchange for Rice and Dollars: South Korean Intelligence Reveals Details of DPRK - Russia Deal
According to South Korean intelligence, the agreement with Russia to provide its own troops to the DPRK for the war with Ukraine cost Moscow $200 million a year, 700,000 tonnes of rice and the transfer of space technology. In this way, North Korea is solving its financial and food problems, according to The Korea Herald.
‘Each North Korean soldier sent to fight on the side of Russia will be paid a monthly salary of about $2000. It is believed that at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers are heading to Ukraine, which means an annual income of more than $200 million,’ the report said.
In addition to the military, according to the NIS think tank, there are about 4,000 North Korean workers in Russia. It is believed that their average salary is about $800 per month.
Congressman Wi Sung-lac, who served as Seoul's ambassador to Russia and is a member of the National Assembly's intelligence committee, said North Korea produces an average of about 4 million tonnes of grain such as rice, barley and wheat each year, according to its own announcement. But most of the country's ‘rice production’ is actually potatoes, with rice believed to account for less than a third of the total, he explained.
‘The 4 million tonnes of grain that North Korea says it produces per year is actually about 1 million tonnes less than what is needed to feed the country. If Russia offers between 600,000 and 700,000 tonnes of rice, that's enough to cover more than half of what North Korea would need to meet its annual demand,’ Wi Sung-lac said.
The lawmaker added that Russia used to send North Korea 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes of rice at a time.
‘So we can say that 600,000 tonnes is slightly more than the rice aid they used to receive from Russia,’ he said.
Nam Sung-wook, former president of the INSS, told The Korea Herald that the NIS think tank ‘downplayed’ the significance of North Korea's involvement in the war with Ukraine in its recent reports.
‘North Korea and Russia's military cooperation will continue after the war. They have agreed to provide immediate military assistance if either of them is attacked under a binding mutual defence treaty,’ he said.
North Korea has sent thousands of soldiers to Russia to support its invasion of Ukraine, and thousands more are expected to join by the end of the year, according to South Korean intelligence and military officials.
Also, the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank affiliated with the NIS, said in a report on Friday that North Korea's decision to send troops to Russia weeks before the US presidential election appears to be based on calculations that a Donald Trump victory would bring Russia's war in Ukraine to a quick end.
‘A Trump-led United States could withdraw from Ukraine, undermining one of the main pillars of the new Cold War-like structure Pyongyang has been working hard to build in recent years in close cooperation with Moscow,’ the INSS said.
As previously reported, Ukraine will officially request weapons from South Korea because of the participation of DPRK troops in Russia's war against Ukraine.