KIM JONG-UN has been accused of helping to set up sinister camps full of snatched Ukrainian kids while pocketing £9.7billion from Vladimir Putin.
Children from Russian-occupied Ukraine have told horror stories of being sent more than 4,000 miles to sweep statues of the Kim dynasty at dawn and listen to draconian speeches about destroying “American imperialism”.
The UK recently sanctioned a after it was claimed Putin has been coughing up cash to ship off abducted youngsters under the guise of “re-education”.
The Songdowon International Children’s Camp, on North Korea’s east coast, has been accused by the EU of helping Russia’s programme of forced assimilation of Ukrainian children.
The camp hides away in the most far-flung outpost of Putin’s reported network of 165 “re-education” sites across occupied Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and .
Ukraine says more than 20,500 children have been deported or forcibly transferred to these camps since Putin’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
Many came from orphanages or were separated from their families as Russian soldiers bulldozed their way across Ukraine at the start of the conflict.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Putin and his children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, over the deportations back in March 2023.
Children who are trapped within these gruelling state camps face the major threat of indoctrination by their captors.
Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne identified a 12-year-old boy, named as Misha, from occupied Makiivka, who spent two weeks at Songdowon in July 2025.
Liza, a 16-year-old girl from occupied Simferopol in Crimea, was also selected for “indoctrination” last year.
Places were reportedly handed out as “prizes” by the Movement of the First, a youth organisation set up under Putin in 2022.
The UK government sanctioned the organisation last year, and just two weeks ago sanctioned its head, Artur Orlov, and the chiefs of its branches in occupied Ukraine.
This constant flow of Russian cash only deepens Kim Jong-un’s pockets.
Inside the camp, children are made to clean monuments to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il every morning.
Strong anti-US sentiments flood the camp with kids reportedly allowed to play computer games in which they blow up the White House.
Kim’s regime also reportedly makes youngsters pay 75p-a-minute to phone home.
Kateryna Rashevska of the Regional Centre for said the trips were dressed up as “cultural exchanges” but were really a tool of political propaganda designed to cement loyalty to Russia and its allies.
She told The Sun: “We understand that kids wake up very early. They have propaganda, indoctrination activities – for example, to clean the statues of the representatives of North Korean regime.
“Children are visited by the North Korean military and taught how to ‘drill’.
“The camp has its own uniform and children wear it for ordinary activities, and for soldiers. The main goal was to brainwash them.
“These trips are presented as children’s diplomacy efforts and cultural exchanges. They are using children for propaganda.”
Britain froze the camp’s assets in May, accusing it of supporting Russia’s “forced deportation and re-education of Ukrainian children”.
Pyongyang called the move a “heinous” provocation and later downgraded its diplomatic mission in London.
Last month, the EU followed suit, sanctioning the camp alongside 10 individuals and 16 other organisations.
They include Rustam Minnikhanov, head of Russia’s Republic of Tatarstan, for facilitating deportations to camps in his region, education ministers in occupied territories and directors of camps and accused of ideological indoctrination.
Rashevska warned that the small number of children so far identified in North Korea does not mean Moscow will not expand the programme.
But the camp fees are small change for Kim.
South Korean intelligence estimates the despot has raked in almost £10bn from Putin’s war in Ukraine.
More than £448m of that also comes from “fees” Kim charges for his own soldiers to be sent to the frontlines to fight and die for Russia.
Putin paid the tyrant in hard cash, energy supplies and military technology.
In return, Moscow has received artillery shells, rockets, ballistic missiles, and thousands of troops.
The haul is huge for the hermit kingdom, with the estimating North Korea’s entire economy was worth just £12.8bn in 2024.
Zelensky says Kim has sent around 15,000 troops to Russia since 2024.
By February this year, around 6,000 had been killed or wounded, according to South Korean intelligence.
“Kim Jong Un uses them like currency and gets something in return,” Zelensky told the UN this week.
Ukrainian intelligence has warned Putin could ask for up to 50,000 more troops – Pyongyang dismissed the claim as “baseless.”
The program received a staggering £150m in Russian state funding in 2024.
