Some analysts believe the case of the two Ukrainian children allegedly sent to a camp in North Korea is being used to be pawns in the propaganda war between Moscow and Pyongyang.
Kateryna Rashevska, a legal expert at the Regional Center for Human Rights of Ukraine (RCHR), revealed the transfer of the minors on December 3 before a subcommittee of the US Congress.
Misha, 12, from the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine, and Lisa, 16, from Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, are among more than 19,500 Ukrainian children abducted in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine, according to Kiev. There are approximately 165 children’s camps documented by the RCHR, most of them in Russia and Belarus.
Forced relocation is “propaganda”
Rashevska tells DW that both children, Misha and Liza, stayed at the Songdowon International Children’s Camp near the port city of Wonsan in eastern North Korea. They were later returned to Russian-occupied Ukraine.
“In this case, Russia is exploiting our Ukrainian children for its propaganda. They are portraying them as a kind of ‘Russian ambassador’ of child and youth diplomacy,” he criticizes.
“They are using our children to forge strategic alliances with a country that the United States has designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and that is actually involved in the crime of aggression against these children’s homeland, against Ukraine. This is absolutely unacceptable,” he added.
The Songdowon camp, founded in 1960, was originally designed to accommodate children from other communist bloc states. After the fall of the Soviet Union, it became a facility for the children of high-ranking North Korean officials and has been opened to foreign children since Moscow and Pyongyang revived their friendship.
The camp, initiation ritual
Dan Pinkston, a professor of international relations at Troy University’s Seoul campus, visited the facility during a trip to North Korea in 2013: “For North Korean children, the camp is almost a rite of passage where they can enjoy all kinds of leisure activities, but with a high dose of propaganda and indoctrination. There were posters, signs and slogans about the evils of imperialism.”
“But what is telling is that this shows how North Korea and Russia are increasingly cooperating and organizing visits by tourists, business people and now students,” he added.
Pinkston believes the two Ukrainian children sent to North Korea may have been part of an experiment to test the effects of further indoctrination, coupled with a sense that they would be “rewarded” for good behavior. “This is all part of the ‘Russification’ of these children and I think we will see more trips like this in the future,” he said.
“Even if it only affects one child or even two children, they are our children,” says activist Rashevska. “Children are our future. And that future should be ours, but it’s been taken away from us. It’s worth saying it out loud,” she continues.
UN Assembly: Russia must return Ukrainian children
The UN General Assembly adopted a non-binding resolution demanding “that the Russian Federation ensure the immediate, safe and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly removed or deported.”
It also called on Moscow to “immediately stop any practice of forced relocation, deportation, separation of families and guardians, change of personal status, including through citizenship, adoption or foster care, and indoctrination of Ukrainian children.”
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that “any accusation regarding the deportation of Ukrainian children is completely unfounded and misleading.” “It was all about evacuating life-threatening minors from combat zones,” it said from Moscow.
(rmr/ms)
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