Ukrainian children taken to North Korea as Russia expands networks of ‘re-education’ camps

Russia has begun transferring Ukrainian children from occupied territories to indoctrination camps in North Korea, marking a disturbing new phase of its system of forced child relocation, according to testimony that was presented this week to the U.S. Senate in Washington. 

Human rights experts say the move suggests deeper coordination between Moscow and Pyongyang and raises urgent questions for international investigators already probing Russia for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian minors, Suspilne reported. 

Kateryna Rashevska, an international justice expert at the Regional Center for Human Rights, told lawmakers on 3 December that her organization has now identified 165 facilities where Ukrainian children are “militarized and Russified.” While many operate inside Russia and Belarus, she said new evidence shows that some minors are being sent nearly 9,000 kilometres away to the Songdowon camp on North Korea’s eastern coast.

She presented photos during a U.S. Senate hearing on Dec. 3. Rashevskais an expert in international justice and legal analysis at the Regional Center for Human Rights, Suspilne reports.

“My organization has documented 165 [so-called] re-education camps where Ukrainian children are being militarized and Russified. These camps operate in occupied territories in Russia, Belarus and North Korea,” Rashevska said.

She showed photos of children, including 12-year-old Mysha from occupied Donetsk region and 16-year-old Liza from occupied Simferopol in Crimea. According to her, Russian authorities sent them to the Songdowon camp in North Korea, located 9,000 kilometres from their home.

“In this camp, children were taught how to kill Japanese soldiers and were introduced to North Korean veterans who attacked the U.S. Navy vessel USS Pueblo in 1968, killing and injuring nine American servicemembers,” Rashevska added.

She said Russia officially labels the forced transfer of Ukrainian children as “evacuation,” even though international humanitarian law clearly regulates the evacuation of minors and obligates an occupying power to take every possible step to reunite children with their families.

“Russia should also have submitted a list of evacuated children to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Given the exceptional nature of evacuations, Russia must regularly review whether there is any basis for holding the children and immediately return them once that necessity no longer exists,” Suspilne reports.

Russia has failed to meet any of these obligations, Rashevska stressed.