Vladimir Putin will reportedly send Russian children to a summer camp in North Korea where they are expected to polish statues of leaders and undergo enforced exercise.
The plans were announced by Grigory Gurov, the head of Putin’s Movement of the First Youth organisation, despite objections by Russian parents worried about sending their children to North Korea, according to the Telegraph.
But Gurov insisted: ‘Conditions there are good.’
The children will reportedly visit the Songdowon camp on the country’s eastern shore, which is reportedly a mix between a Disney-themed water park and a boarding house with early wake up calls.
This is the latest indication that relations between Putin and Kim Jong Un are blossoming following the Russian leaders visit to North Korea last month.
Vladimir Putin (left, pictured with Kim Jong Un) will reportedly send Russian children to a summer camp in North Korea where they are expected to polish statues of leaders and undergo enforced exercise
Children take part in a cookery lesson at Songdowon International School Children’s Camp on August 22, 2018 in Wonsan, North Korea
Schoolchildren play in the water at Songdowon International Children’s Camp in Wonsan City, North Korea in this undated photo released by the Korean Central News Agency
In Songdowon, which was built by Kim’s grandfather in 1960, children will have to get up at 6.30am and start their day by cleaning statues of Kim’s father and grandfather, North Korea’s previous dictators.
‘We received special attention and were given not brooms, but special pads and were allowed to wipe the statue itself,’ Artem Samsonov, a former Communist party official, wrote about his visit to the camp in 2015.
Samsonov, who was imprisoned in 2022 for abusing a child, also published photographs of Russian children polishing a statue.
He also revealed that children have to participate in enforced exercise, other cleaning tasks as well as state-approved lessons.
While they can also go to a disco, they will likely be fed nothing but soup, rice and potatoes every day, according to Samsonov.
Sending Russian children to North Korea for a summer camp indicates that Putin is taking yet another step closer to Kim.
Last month, North Korea pledged to send military personnel to Ukraine within a few weeks to support Putin’s war-weary forces as both sides struggle to make a decisive breakthrough.
Pyongyang will take an unprecedented step in sending construction and engineering forces to occupied territories of Ukraine as early as the beginning of July to assist in rebuilding work, South Korea’s TV Chosun reported, citing a government official.
The rare vow of foreign support follows president Vladimir Putin’s official state visit to North Korea – the first in almost a quarter of a century – which culminated in the signing of a so-called defence pact on June 19.
The treaty binds its signatories to providing ‘military and other assistance with all means in its possession without delay’ should either find itself ‘put in a state of war by an armed invasion’.
The lobby of the dormitory at the Songdowon International Children’s Camp is painted in pastel colors, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, in Wonsan, North Korea
Kim Jong Un is pictured during a previous camp visit in Songdowon
North Korean girls in similar bathing suits stand under a shower at the Songdowon International Children’s Camp, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, in Wonsan, North Korea
During his visit, Putin reportedly made the promise to send children from his Movement of the First Youth organisation to North Korea.
Created in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Putin aims to align the children closely with the Kremlin’s ideology.
The members can be seen wearing red berets as well as matching neck scarves and are often given flags to carry during state functions.
But many of the children’s parents have voiced concerns about sending their children to North Korea, even just for a summer camp.
One parent joked on social media that their child’s only escape would be to ‘walk through the jungle to South Korea’.
Another user tried to reassure her fellow parents, saying that the camp was ‘good’ and offered pools and water parks after she stayed there in 2017.
She even compared it with Artek, a Russian youth camp in occupied Crimea: ‘Just with a different culture and completely without the internet.’