North Koreans pay a steep price to avoid Russian frontlines
They are selling their properties and borrowing money—all to pay doctors for false tuberculosis diagnoses. Families of Korean conscripts are doing everything they can to prevent their sons and husbands from being sent to Russia to the front lines. Because from there, they rarely return.
Radio Free Asia reports that avoiding military service through bribery has become more difficult in North Korea these days.
False certificates of diagnosed tuberculosis are not new. Still, their cost has increased fivefold due to the increased demand from families wanting to avoid sending young men to Russia to fight against Ukraine.
In North Korea, every man must serve ten years in the military, and every woman seven years, but those who have the means can buy their way out with money.
According to the South Korean station NK News, North Korean residents working in lower-level positions earn between 80 pence and £2 per month.
—Until last year, most medical certificates allowing for military service exemption cost about £80. Now it's £400—says a resident of the northern province of Ryanggang.
The price for avoiding being sent to the Russian front
So what was once a huge sum has now become unattainable even for some wealthier families.
—People are selling their properties and borrowing money, but the price of certificates for a tuberculosis diagnosis keeps rising, so some residents are giving up—says another anonymous source.
Those who can afford it, have relative peace. But only for a while.
The authorities in North Pyongyang are fighting against fake certificates. They are forcing citizens eligible for military service to undergo tuberculosis tests every three months instead of once a year as before.
According to the Pentagon and South Korean intelligence, North Korea has sent 12,000 soldiers to Russia to fight against Ukraine. Pyongyang and Moscow have not openly admitted this.
