North Koreans Pay 100X Monthly Income For Fake TB Diagnoses To Avoid Russian Duty
The word has apparently seeped out in North Korea that being deployed to fight in Russia is a death sentence, so families are scraping together what for them are exorbitant sums to bribe hospital officials for fake tuberculosis diagnoses in order to avoid being sent to Russia. JL
Micah McCartney reports in Newsweek:
North Korean families are paying more than 100 times the average monthly salary for fake tuberculosis diagnoses to keep their young men from being sent to the Russian front. The price of bribing hospital officials to issue fake tuberculosis certificates has surged fivefold from last year, as more families attempt to keep their young men from being sent to Russia. "There is a fear that if their sons join the military and are sent to Russia, the parents will never see them again alive." The regime has been quietly issuing death certificates to bereaved families, stating their loved ones died during "sacred combat training in honor of the motherland," without disclosing the actual circumstances of their deaths.
North Korean families are paying more than 100 times the average monthly salary for fake tuberculosis diagnoses to keep their young men from being sent to the Russian front, according to a new report.
Newsweek reached out to the North Korean embassy in China with an emailed request for comment.
Why It Matters
The U.S. and South Korea estimate that the Kim Jong Un regime has sent up to 12,000 troops to Russia, where they have joined the fighting in Kursk to help push back the Ukrainian counteroffensive that caught Russian forces off guard at the border in August. Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have publicly acknowledged the North Korean boots on the ground.
Despite being impoverished and resource-strapped due to failed state policies and international sanctions, North Korea maintains a standing army of 1.3 million, ranking fourth largest in the world. An additional 7.6 million reservists, roughly 30 percent of the population, bolster its military strength. To sustain these troop levels, men must serve 10 years, while women are required to serve five.
What To Know
The price of bribing hospital officials to issue fake tuberculosis certificates has surged fivefold from $100 last year, as more families attempt to keep their young men from being sent to Russia, according to Radio Free Asia's North Korean sources.
This is a staggering sum given that the average monthly salary for a government worker in North Korea is between 5,000 and 10,000 won ($1-3), though many families supplement their income through the country's extensive black market economy.
Soldiers salute at Mansu Hill in Pyongyang on April 15, 2024, as North Korea marks the 112th anniversary of the country's founder Kim Il Sung's birth.Kyodo via Associated Press
"There is an underlying fear that if their sons join the military and are sent to Russia, the parents will never see them again alive," one woman in Ryanggang province told the outlet, speaking on condition of anonymity for her safety.
North Koreans have been caught off guard by the deployment of troops to their Russian ally, according to one captured North Korean soldier who told Ukrainian officials he hadn't been informed beforehand that he was heading for Russia and said he didn't even know who he was fighting
Back home, it is claimed that the regime has been quietly issuing death certificates to bereaved families, stating that their loved ones died during "sacred combat training in honor of the motherland," without disclosing the actual circumstances of their deaths.
In the weeks since their troops entered combat, confused North Koreans have begun questioning why they are fighting Ukraine instead of the U.S.—the country they have been indoctrinated since childhood to see as their primary enemy.
"Who is our enemy? Why do we have a new enemy?" one Ryanggang resident told Radio Free Asia in a separate article. "This confrontational view toward the Americans, which the authorities have attempted to instill in the people, is wavering."
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said there had been 3,800 North Korean casualties in Kursk so far.
North Korea has one of the highest rates of tuberculosis, with 513 cases per 100,000 people, according to 2023 estimates by the World Health Organization.
What People Are Saying
Alina Hrytsenko, analyst, Ukraine's National Institute for Strategic Studies, wrote for the Atlantic Council think tank: "At this point, North Korea's participation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine looks to be less about supporting Putin's imperial ambitions and more about upgrading Kim Jong Un's war machine.
"In the short term, the presence of North Korean soldiers is allowing Russia to overcome mounting manpower shortages. But with Russia believed to be losing tens of thousands of troops each month, there is little chance that Pyongyang will be able to fully satisfy Moscow's insatiable demand for additional manpower."
What's Next?
Last week, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it believes North Korea is preparing to send additional manpower to Russia.
The Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War predicts this could happen as early as mid-March, with the next wave of troops—and resulting casualties—potentially much higher, estimating Pyongyang could lose 45,000 soldiers per month.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said the war would not have occurred on his watch, last weekend threatened further sanctions if Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin did not "make a deal" to bring the three year conflict to a close.
A Russian government spokesperson said Putin was "waiting for signals" from Washington.
As a Partner and Co-Founder of Predictiv and PredictivAsia, Jon specializes in management performance and organizational effectiveness for both domestic and international clients. He is an editor and author whose works include Invisible Advantage: How Intangilbles are Driving Business Performance. Learn more...
0 comments:
Post a Comment