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North Korean rehab has sauna, pool, but no alcohol, says Russian soldier

Published: 21 Feb. 2025, 15:28

SEO JI-EUN
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Russian soldiers prepare to fire toward Ukrainian positions in an undisclosed location in Ukraine in this photo distributed by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Feb. 8. [AP/YONHAP]

North Korea's sanitariums are surprisingly fun — but vegetarian, a wounded Russian soldier revealed after his weeklong stay.

The soldier, under the pseudonym Aleksei, described a Wonsan rehabilitation facility where he was sent after fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine as “clean” and “good” overall, granting him access to a pool, sauna and recreational activities such as table tennis and cards with fellow soldiers. He did not, however, receive the quality of medical treatment he'd expect from a convalescent center.

The meals, Aleksei said, were “tasteless and lacked meat” in an interview with The Guardian published Thursday.

After two years of combat, Aleksei returned to his hometown of Vladivostok in the Russian Far East to recover from a shrapnel wound in his leg. He told the British daily that he was sent covertly to North Korea for medical rehabilitation after more popular sanitarium destinations on the Black Sea and in the Altai Mountains were already fully booked.

Russian troops injured in Ukraine receiving treatment in North Korea, says Moscow's envoy to Pyongyang

Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora confirmed in an interview with the state-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Feb. 10 that “hundreds” of Russian soldiers were being treated in North Korea after being wounded in Ukraine.

Aleksei said his stay in the country “wasn't what I expected.”

He was treated at the Wonsan sanitarium alongside about two dozen other Russian soldiers, but he claimed that the group was forbidden from evening outings or contact with locals residents and could not access alcohol.

North Korea’s provision of medical support to Russian soldiers underscores the deepening relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang following the third anniversary of Russia's attack on Ukraine.

North Korea is fully covering the expenses for medical treatment, care and food, according to Matsegora. When Russian authorities offered to contribute to part of the costs, North Korean officials reportedly refused, feeling “sincerely offended” and insisting that such offers “should never be made again.”

Some analysts suggest that Russia may be using medical rehabilitation as cover for military cooperation with North Korea.

“The arrival of combat-experienced Russian soldiers, particularly if they include officers or noncommissioned officers, to North Korea may allow the Russian military to work with North Korean forces and disseminate lessons from the war in Ukraine while ostensibly recuperating,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War wrote in a report last week.

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