Ekaterina Girnyk14:32, 26.01.25

He said the training of North Korean soldiers “has nothing to do with modern warfare.”

Former North Korean soldier Hyonsung Lee, who defected from North Korea in 2014, told  Business Insider about his time in the North Korean army. According to him, North Korean soldiers had a shortage of not only bullets, but even toilet paper, and shared underwear.

Lee told BI that he joined the North Korean military in April 2002. His first unit was the 4th Corps’ Reconnaissance Artillery Battalion, a special forces unit primarily tasked with infiltrating enemy bases and providing coordinates for artillery strikes.

According to him, the soldiers did not have proper showers, food was poor, and there was not even enough toilet paper.

“The first day I wiped myself with a sock,” Lee said, adding that later leaflets, books or leaves were used.

Underwear was also shared – as Lee said, “we washed them together, and then the senior officers distributed the underwear randomly.”

Lee said he was paid 50 North Korean won a month, about the price of ice cream.

Training was severely limited, he said, due to concerns about breaking equipment. There was very little hands-on training during firearms training because the bullets were “strictly controlled,” Lee said.

“In my first year of military service, I could only fire three bullets,” he said.

Assault Corps of the DPRK

Lee said he spent six months training soldiers from a commando unit currently fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine.  

The corps recruits taller, more well-built soldiers, Lee said, and is an elite unit trained in foreign operations, such as airborne missions and light infantry work. At least they had more ammunition to train with, Lee noted, but the airborne troops had to practice by jumping from a mock-up, he said.

“I would say that their training has nothing to do with modern warfare,” he said.

DPRK soldiers in Russia’s war in Ukraine

As UNIAN reported earlier, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on January 24 that  North Korea may be preparing to send additional troops to Russia to support it in its war against Ukraine. Details of North Korea’s possible next steps remain unknown.

On January 9, it became known that  4,000 soldiers  from North Korea died in the battles in Kursk.

(C)UNIAN 2025