Why North Korean soldiers are prepared to die in Russia

Ryu Seong-hyeon doesn’t need to imagine what the thousands of North Korean soldiers deployed to the Russian front lines might now be thinking. Not long ago, he was one of them.

Ryu darted across the Korean Demilitarized Zone to freedom in 2019—a rare soldier defection. He had a profile that mirrors many of the freshly dispatched troops today: young, underfed and blind to the outside world. Before he chose to flee, Ryu remembers moving bricks at construction sites and shivering outside as he stood guard. He ate mushy rice mixed with corn. Meat was a holiday treat.

Back then, if ordered to fight with the Russians, the now 28-year-old Ryu would have given a resolute answer: “Thank you.” His rationale: “Wouldn’t the meals be better at least?”

The North Korean fighters in Russia have been dismissed as mercenaries, cannon fodder and second-rate. But what gets overlooked, former North Korean soldiers and other military experts argue, is how ready to die many of these troops are—and how eager they might be to escape grim conditions back home.

It is unlikely the roughly 10,000 North Korean troops in the Kursk region, where Russia is trying to repel a Ukrainian incursion, will turn the tide of the bruising 2½-year war. But they provide Russian President Vladimir Putin with much-needed manpower and pose new threats on the deadlocked front lines. One of the biggest mysteries is the level of resolve these North Korean troops will bring to a battle far from home and for an unfamiliar cause.

Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday some North Korean soldiers had already engaged in combat on a small scale near the front lines. A day later, South Korea assessed the fresh arrivals had not yet engaged in full-fledged combat. The U.S. has said it expects North Koreans to begin fighting within days.

Nearly all of the troops sent to Russia—who include special-forces fighters—would have a similar set of motivations, the North Korean ex-soldiers say. They have been indoctrinated from a young age to sacrifice everything for the supreme leader. Children get urged in their school textbooks to prove their regime loyalty by volunteering to be the targets of hypothetical artillery strikes.

The troops’ deployment would be seen as the opportunity of a lifetime to bring back cash and glory to the Kim Jong Un regime. Those who die get valorized; those who survive come back heroes.

“North Korean soldiers are convinced that they should do anything for Kim,” Ryu said.

‘Without an inch of hesitation’

Even North Korea’s top troops lack modern equipment and resources, putting them at a disadvantage relative to special forces trained in the U.S., Europe or South Korea, said David Maxwell, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel with extensive experience in Asia. Many of North Korea’s soldiers, even special forces, spend the bulk of their time on agricultural or construction work, he added.

“North Korean special-operation forces training produces highly disciplined soldiers with intense loyalty, often willing to undertake extreme risks with limited equipment,” Maxwell said.

The Russians and Ukrainians have armed forces in the hundreds of thousands, with both sides facing attrition and struggles replenishing their ranks. Russia can recruit more than 30,000 fresh troops a month, though it often loses as many killed or wounded in Ukraine, according to Western estimates. Ukraine is suffering lower rates of casualties, though precise figures aren’t clear.

What makes North Korea’s initial deployment a concern is its ability to send more. North Korea has one of the world’s largest standing armies, at roughly 1.2 million, with several million more in reserves, according to South Korean estimates. The Kim regime fields the world’s largest special-forces unit at around 200,000, military experts say.

Soldiers sent to Russia are expected to be paid a monthly wage of around $2,000, much of which will go to the regime, South Korean officials say. Still, that is a staggering sum where most of the country lives on monthly earnings of a few dollars.

For decades, North Korea has struggled to supply enough food for its people due to international isolation and economic mismanagement, exacerbated by natural disasters. Around 45% of North Korea’s population of 26 million is undernourished, according to a World Food Program report. Even the military, which typically receives special privileges, experiences chronic food shortages.

The special forces hold a distinct spot atop the North Korean military pecking order. They’re better fed than other units, with more intense training in infiltration, infrastructure destruction and assassination. State television has aired footage that highlights the vaudevillian aspects of their training: Troops break lightbulbs with their bare hands and shirtless fighters get clubbed with wooden sticks. Others bend metal rods.

In September, Kim oversaw special-forces scouting and raid drills featuring the country’s “invincible revolutionary armed forces,” as state media called them. Each North Korean combatant, the report claimed, was the equivalent of 100 enemy soldiers. Kim’s approval filled the troops, whose cheers roared like thunder, with “boundless emotion, joy, great pride and self-esteem.”

Lee Hyun-seung once served in North Korea’s elite “Storm Corps” special-forces unit before he fled roughly a decade ago. On top of the military drills, Lee, who is now 39, recalled attending daily ideological training sessions memorizing Kim’s commands and repeating their willingness to die for the supreme leader—a practice that no doubt continues for those dispatched to Russia.

“They may be sacrificed without making much impact in the war,” Lee said. “But they wouldn’t dare cast doubt on the leader’s orders to go to Russia.”

A worthwhile risk

North Korea often rolls out flashy military hardware at garish parades, from new tanks to artillery rockets and drones. But that advanced gear is likely not integrated at the troop level. The country lacks the funds to properly supply its military with such high-price equipment.

The recent North Korean arrivals were taught around 100 basic military terms in Russian—including “fire” and “in position”—though they appeared to have struggled with communication, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers late last month.

Given the focus on boosting Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, the training or food situation for soldiers hasn’t dramatically changed since Kim took power in December 2011, said Bang Jong-kwan, a former South Korean army major general. That limits their potential role in Russia to being foot soldiers, due to the language barrier and unfamiliarity with the terrain, he said.

“They will experience high casualties because it’s highly unlikely that Russia provides advanced equipment or intel,” Bang said.

Nonetheless, many North Korean soldiers would see the risks as worthwhile. Those who have heard of the North Korean pilots who flew in combat against U.S. aircraft during the Vietnam War know that an overseas deployment will elevate a soldier’s status, said Sim Ju-il, who was a North Korean military officer for 30 years before escaping to South Korea in 1998.

The pilots who returned from Vietnam were greeted as heroes and promoted to senior officer ranks, the 74-year-old Sim recalled. Even the wives of the pilots who died on the battlefield were given elevated Workers’ Party status that grants them access to prestigious jobs.

It is that blind devotion to the Kim regime that Sim hopes to break—by going to the Ukrainian front lines. He said there are roughly 300 or so other former North Korean military members also willing to go. If deployed to the front lines, they hope to create “psychological disturbance” by sending antiregime leaflets and creating broadcasts to persuade the North Korean soldiers to surrender or defect, he said.

“I want them to know they have been lied to,” Sim said. “There is no need to die because of their loyalty.”

Write to Dasl Yoon at dasl.yoon@wsj.com