Constant propaganda as well as limited access to ammunition — or even toilet paper — were the stark realities of being in North Korea’s army, a former soldier told Reporters.
Hyunseung Lee, who was born in North Korea in 1985, defected with his family in 2014. Today he lives and works as a consultant for the Global Peace Foundation in Washington, DC.
During his years in the military, Lee says he trained soldiers from the 11th Corps — or Storm Corps — the elite unit now believed to be fighting alongside Russia in its war against Ukraine.
In an open letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in November, Lee described those soldiers as victims of a “ruthless deal” between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. He urged Zelenskyy to target them with psychological tactics.
Lee spoke to Business Insider for an in-depth interview about how North Korea really works.
Lee’s firsthand knowledge of the North Korean military was developed during the rule of Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un’s father, who died in 2011.
Nonetheless, his insight gives a rare snapshot of the hermit kingdom, as well as its military operations.
Lee told BI that he joined the North Korean military in April 2002.
After training, he said his first unit was the 4th Corps Reconnaissance Artillery Battalion, a special force devoted mainly to infiltrating enemy bases and transmitting back their coordinates for artillery attacks.
It was a grueling life — one in which there were no proper shower facilities, food was poor, and trainees had to improvise their own toilet paper, he said.
“The first day, I used my sock to wipe,” Lee said, adding that later it was leaflets, books, or leaves.
Underwear was also communal, he added.
“We washed them together and then the senior officers distribute underwear randomly.”
Lee said he was paid 50 North Korean won a month — about the price of an ice cream.
Soldiers would then supplement their income with private business, which was against the law, he added. “Basically, no one could make a living with the North Korean payroll system.”
Having no experience of the outside world, Lee said he believed that the North Korean army could take on the US and win. Yet he said the equipment they were using was “from World War II.”
Training was also massively restricted due to fears of breaking equipment that could not be replaced, he told BI.
When it came to weapons training — on a North Korean version of the AK-47 — there was very little shooting because bullets were “strictly controlled,” Lee said.
“So the first year of my military service, I was only able to shoot three bullets,” he said.