Behind the deployment of North Korean troops is economy and defense...Kim Jong Un's 'Gambling'

[Anchor]
North Korea's intention to send its first ground troops overseas is drawing attention.

It seems to have been aiming to break through the economic difficulties that have continued since COVID-19 and strengthen Kim Jong-un's core business, the defense capability, and provocations are expected to continue to prevent internal unrest caused by the dispatch of troops.

Reporter Kim Moon-kyung reports.

[Reporter]
North Korea opened its borders to the outside world three years and seven months after locking down its borders due to COVID-19 in 2020.

We encouraged self-sufficiency during COVID-19, but the aftereffects were too great.

In the end, last year, there was a news that people died of hunger one after another.

[Koo Byung-sam / Unification Ministry spokesman: We closely share the assessment of North Korea's food situation among related agencies, and we believe that the food shortage is serious, with a number of deaths occurring in some areas.]

Foreign tourists were also first received in February this year, and the first tourist after COVID-19 was a Russian tourist, not a Chinese one.

Since then, there have been a series of abnormal signs in the relationship between North Korea and China, which was called a blood alliance, and North Korea eventually concludes a de facto alliance treaty with Russia.

[Kim Jong-un / Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea: The legal foundation has been laid to realize the grand vision of the leadership of the two countries and the people's centuries-old aspirations to build a strong country]

[Vladimir Putin/Russian President: Under the Comprehensive Partnership Agreement signed today, we will provide mutual support if one of the parties to the agreement is attacked]

The number of North Korean troops dispatched here is expected to reach 10,000 by the end of this year.

The monthly salary is known to be around $2,000 per person, and it is highly likely that he has been promised to participate in restoration work after the war.

This is why some point out that North Korea, which criticized the threat of South Korea and the U.S., chose to send troops, which could pose a security hole, because of economic difficulties.

It also seems that he aimed for the opportunity to complete the five-year defense development plan, which had been sluggish since it was presented at the 2021 party congress.

If the ICBM re-entry technology is transferred, it can complete the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which began with the Taepodong missile launch in 1998, and Russia's state-of-the-art technology transfer, which cannot be converted into money such as strategic nuclear submarines, is also pointed out as a kind of gambling with life as a security.

[Moon Sung-mook / Korea Institute for National Strategy: Kim Jong-un is trying to get what he wants, but it is difficult to determine at the moment whether the result will be the opposite or not according to Kim Jong-un's calculations.]

North Korea's dispatch of troops is a key reason not irrelevant to us, and tensions are expected to continue between the two Koreas as they are likely to inflate external threats to prevent internal disturbances caused by the dispatch.

I'm Kim Moon-kyung of YTN.


Video editing: Kim Jiyeon