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WASHINGTON —North Korean defectors say Pyongyang has likely kept the deployment of that nation's soldiers to fight in Russia's war against Ukraine as a secret from its own people, including the soldiers' own families, but the news will undoubtedly leak out, causing anxiety and pain.
Western intelligence officials estimate that as many as 10,000 North Korean soldiers are now in place, mainly in locations around Russia's Kursk region where Ukrainian forces have captured some Russian territory, and that the troops have already suffered combat casualties.
"North Korean mothers who sent their children to Russia must feel unimaginable pain," said Kim Jeong-ah, a North Korean defector and former first lieutenant in the North Korean People's Army who spoke to VOA Korean by phone Wednesday.
"It drives you crazy; how else can you express that feeling?" said Kim, herself a mother who now runs a nonprofit in Seoul that promotes women's rights in North Korea. "They cannot even cry as hard as you want at home, because there's no soundproof walls between houses."
Kim, who escaped North Korea in 2009, said, "The families of those North Korean soldiers in Russia must be suffering without being able to express their grievances due to pressure from the North Korean regime."
Rising human rights concerns
It is widely believed that the Kim Jong Un regime mobilized its elite "Storm Corps" special forces to support Russia.
Lee Hyun Seung, a former soldier in the Storm Corps unit and an escapee who now lives in the U.S., told VOA Korean in a phone call Wednesday that "the North Korean regime does not inform families of overseas deployments, unit locations or personal safety issues," for fear of leaking military secrets.
Lee suggested that news of the deployment is likely already spreading by word of mouth among residents, and that "there will certainly be internal opposition among residents to this clear violation of human rights - deploying the troops without notice to the families."
"Rumors will spread quickly, and if the families who were not aware of the deployment find out their sons were sacrificed, this will be a huge blow to the regime."
In a recent talk hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Tae Young-ho, former North Korean diplomat who served in South Korea's National Assembly after his defection, said although Pyongyang is keeping the deployment secret, North Korean troop fatalities will be hard to keep from public view.
Tae also said that North Korea has a very low birth rate, with families having only one or two children, so parents will not be able to accept the fact that their children died defending Russia, not their own country.
Lack of training, resources
Lee Woong-gil, who defected from North Korea after 13 years of service with the Storm Corps, told VOA Korean by phone that he had heard that the training conditions and capabilities of North Korean special forces have deteriorated, compared with when he served.
"If you look at the photos and videos [of North Korean soldiers in Russia], they don't look like the best-trained special forces soldiers, they just look like soldiers who came out during training," Lee said. "They didn't look very fit, and they looked like run-of-the-mill soldiers who were just drafted during training."
North Korea is one of the most militarized countries in the world. All men between the ages of 17 and 30 must enlist for military service for a period of five to 13 years.
Lee also said it is very difficult for the North Korean regime to provide proper economic compensation to deployed troops and their families, adding "the only thing North Korean soldiers can hope for is the safety of themselves and their families."
Lee predicted that when faced with extreme pain and fear of death, North Korean soldiers in Russia would feel agitated and would highly likely surrender during combat or attempt to escape and even seek asylum.
Risk of severe trauma
Oh Eun-kyung, a counselor at the Korean Counseling Psychological Association in Seoul, who counsels North Korean defectors, said in a phone call with VOA Korean on Monday that North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia are highly likely to suffer from severe trauma due to mental stress.
"The psychological isolation and helplessness of not being able to do anything will increase among the families left behind in North Korea," said Oh. "The families' anger at the regime's anti-human rights measures could serve as a trigger for major social unrest within North Korea."
David Maxwell, a former U.S. Special Forces colonel who served on the U.N.'s Combined Forces Command in South Korea, told VOA Korean by phone that North Korean soldiers who have never participated in actual battles are being sent to the front line, risking exposure to even more serious trauma.
"They will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. They will suffer from traumatic experience, but they have been so thoroughly indoctrinated ... that I don't think you will see it manifest in ways that it does in the rest of the world," said Maxwell, who now is vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy. "They certainly will not be properly cared for [to deal with] the experience."
War without just cause
Ri Jong Ho, a North Korean defector now in the U.S. and a former high-ranking economic official for the Kim regime, said Pyongyang will not publicly acknowledge the Russia deployment, given its weak justification.
"When North Korea sent troops to Vietnam, our goal was to protect the socialist front; it was the Cold War back then," Ri told VOA Korean by phone Wednesday.
North Korea has long denied that it sent members of its air force into the Vietnam War, although it was belatedly confirmed in 2002 when North Korean state media reported that a delegation had retrieved remains of North Korean airmen from Vietnamese soil.
"They don't have any justification this time," Ri said. "They participated in the war of aggression. The North Korean soldiers are just there as cannon fodder."
This story originated in VOA's Korean Service.