Ukrainian children abducted by Russia have been sent to North Korea for “political indoctrination”, human rights campaigners have warned.
The Kyiv-based Regional Centre for Human Rights said it had confirmed “several” cases of Ukrainian children being sent to a camp in the reclusive nation.
Here they faced “militarisation and political indoctrination”, constituting “harmful and abusive treatment, with potentially severe psychological consequences”, the organisation told Sky News via email.
“At this moment we have confirmation of several cases involving Ukrainian children taken from the occupied territories to North Korea,” wrote Kateryna Rashevska, the centre’s legal expert.
She added that they knew of others who had also been considered for the camps, though had not necessarily attended them.
“There are also mentions of other children, including from the occupied Luhansk region, who participated in the competitive selection process,” Ms Rashevska said.
“However, there is no confirmation of their selection.”
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She identified two affected children in testimony she gave to the US Congress last week.
Ms Rashevska told a Senate subcommittee: “12-year-old Misha from the occupied Donetsk region and 16-year-old Liza from occupied Simferopol were sent to Songdowon camp in North Korea, 9,000 km from home.
“Children there were taught to ‘destroy Japanese militarists’ and met Korean veterans who, in 1968, attacked the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, killing and wounding nine American soldiers.”
The centre told Sky News that Misha, (short for Mykhailo) stayed at the camp from 21 July to 1 August 2025 as part of a “Korean-Russian Friendship” event, while Liza, (short for Yelyzaveta), was there from July to August last year.
An official programme for one trip lists events like Korea Day, Russia Day, as well as sport, and activities dedicated to the history, culture and traditions of the two countries.
But campaigners say we shouldn’t be deceived by the benign itinerary.
Ms Rashevska said: “Although such visits are presented as ‘cultural exchanges’ they are in fact ‘children’s diplomacy’ which effectively legitimizes the totalitarian regime in North Korea.
“For children from the occupied territories, this means visiting a state that supports aggression against Ukraine.
“All of them have already undergone ideological indoctrination and militarisation, making them a kind of tool of Russian propaganda.
“The inclusion of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine also serves as a way for the Russians to legitimise the annexation and demonstrate that these children have already become bearers of Russian identity.”
The Songdowon International Children’s Camp, on the east coast of North Korea, lies just a few miles from the regime’s newly-built beach resort at Wonsan.
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To get there, Ms Rashevska said, children were taken from occupied Ukraine to Moscow, then to Vladivostok in the Russian far east, and finally on to North Korea.
And while only a few children have made the trip so far, campaigners are raising the alarm now in the hope of saving others.
Ms Rashevska wrote: “A small number of children taken to North Korea does not mean that Russia will not expand these programs in the future.
“This is why it is important to raise this issue publicly, so that these isolated cases do not develop into administrative practices or state policies of the Russian Federation.
“That would increasingly hinder the return of children, especially from closed countries like North Korea.”
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North Korea has been sending troops to Ukraine to fight alongside Russian forces since last year.
And Ms Rashevska said it was no coincidence that Ukrainian children were being sent to a hostile nation.
She told Sky News: “North Korea is also participating in the crime of aggression… and that is why they sent Ukrainian children to this enemy state.”
