"Sending troops to North Korea is to sell people's blood and tears to maintain power."

A U.S. human rights expert criticized the North Korean Kim Jong-un regime's dispatch of troops to Russia as "selling the blood, sweat, and tears of North Koreans to maintain power."

Greg Scalatu, secretary-general of the North Korean Human Rights Commission (HRNK), said at a meeting hosted by the Washington Times Foundation on the 7th local time, "Russia's dispatch is North Korea's export of instability and violence to the world's conflict zones for profit."

Secretary-General Scalatu called North Korean leader Kim Jong-un a "victory of Kim Jong-un's parallel policy of developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and securing foreign currency needed to purchase luxury goods for the powerful through the dispatch of troops to Russia."

He also quoted North Korean defectors as saying, "The biggest problem for North Korean troops sent to Russia is food," and explained that Russian and North Korean authorities are unable to provide South Korean food to North Korean troops.

Regarding U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Richard Grinnell as the presidential envoy in charge of North Korea's affairs, Secretary-General Scalise said, "It is a signal to North Korea that we are here and ready to talk."

"I think Trump is interested in re-engaging North Korea because it is such a fundamental threat to U.S. national security," he said.