The two Ukrainian children, reportedly sent to a camp for the offspring of North Korean elite, are seen by some analysts as pawns in the propaganda war being waged by Moscow and Pyongyang, while the rights activist says the children are the victims of war crimes.

The transfer of the children was revealed in testimony to a US congressional subcommittee on December 3 by Kateryna Rashevska, a legal expert at Ukraine's Regional Center for Human Rights (RCHR).

The duo — identified as Misha, 12, from the Russian-occupied Donetsk region of Ukraine, and 16-year-old Liza from the Crimean capital, Simferopol — who, according to the RCHR, went to the North Korean camp of Songdowon as part of Russian children's groups.

Set up in 1960, the Songdowon camp was originally designed to host children from other Communist-bloc states, with children able to spend time at the water park, the nearby beach, a football field, gym, aquarium and other activities while staying in on-site dormitories.

According to Kyiv, Russia has abducted more than 19,500 Ukrainian children. This official figure includes only verified cases, however, Kyiv says the actual figure may be higher. 

Rashevska told DW that Misha and Liza are most likely not included, as the number has remained unchanged for a long time, while information about these two children has only recently been discovered.

"There is currently insufficient evidence to confirm elements of unlawful deportation in their case, making it inappropriate to prematurely classify them as abducted children in that sense," she said.

At the same time, according to Rashevska, their transfer involved other violations of children's rights, including political indoctrination, elements of militarization, and use in Russian propaganda — prohibited under Article 50 of the Fourth Geneva Convention — as well as breaches of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, such as identity, rest and leisure and the principle of the child's best interests.

The vast majority of the 165 camps for children documented by the RCHR are in Russia and Belarus, but it appears that Moscow and Pyongyang are looking to deepen the alliance that has emerged since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

As part of a new-found friendship, North Korea has supplied munitions and troops for the war in Ukraine, while Russia has reciprocated with food, fuel and military technology.

Rights campaigner condemns 'propaganda' move

Rashevska told DW that the two children that stayed at the Songdowon International Children's Camp, near North Korea's eastern port city of Wonsan, were later returned to Russian-occupied Ukraine. 

"Why does it matter?" she asked. "Because in this case, Russia is essentially exploiting our Ukrainian children for its propaganda. They present them as some kind of 'Russian ambassadors' of child and youth diplomacy."

"They are using our children to build strategic partnerships with a country that the US has designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and that is, in fact, complicit in the crime of aggression against the homeland of these children, against Ukraine. That is absolutely unacceptable."

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the camp increasingly became a place where the children of senior North Korean officials could stay, although it has opened up to foreign children since Moscow and Pyongyang resurrected their friendship.

Camp is 'rite of passage'

"It is a bit like a Boy Scout camp, but with the Kim family as the focus," said Dan Pinkston, a professor of international relations at the Seoul campus of Troy University, who was able to tour the facility during a trip to North Korea in 2013. 

"For North Korean kids, the camp is almost a rite of passage where they can do all sorts of recreational stuff but with heavy doses of propaganda and indoctrination. There were posters, signs and slogans all about the evils of imperialism."

"But what is telling is that this shows how North Korea and Russia are increasingly cooperating and arranging visits by tourists, businesspeople and now students," he added.

Pinkston believes that the two Ukrainian children who were sent to North Korea may have been part of a test to see the effects of greater indoctrination linked to the sense that they were being "rewarded" for good behavior.

"It's all part of the 'Russification' of these children and I expect we could see more such trips in the future," he said.

Other analysts see it as merely propaganda. Andrei Lankov, a Russian professor of history and international relations at Seoul's Kookmin University described the visit as "a pretty shameless piece of manipulation."

Whatever the motivation of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Rashevska is adamant that the international community needs to do more to protect young Ukrainians.

'Inhumane treatment'

"For Kim Jong Un's regime, this is a soft, socially acceptable way to deepen the 'strategic partnership' with Russia through 'children's diplomacy,'" she said.

"For Russia, it's useful because the kids get to see a country where human rights and freedoms are even worse than in Russia itself: no internet, no mobile phones, no possibility of staying in touch afterwards."

"Even if only one child is affected. Even if only two children are affected. Because they are our children. Children are not statistics. Children are not the tool to shock people," said Rashevska.

"Children are our future. And that future was supposed to be ours, but it has been stolen from us. That's worth saying out loud."

UN Assembly tells Russia to return captive Ukrainian kids

The UN General Assembly last week called for the immediate and unconditional return of Ukrainian children "forcibly transferred" to Russia.

The assembly adopted a non-binding resolution demanding "that the Russian Federation ensure the immediate, safe and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly transferred or deported."

It also calls on Moscow to "cease, without delay, any further practice of forcible transfer, deportation, separation from families and legal guardians, change of personal status, including through citizenship, adoption or placement in foster families, and indoctrination of Ukrainian children."

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the resolution "professes outrageous statements against Russia by accusing it of what it refers to as deporting Ukrainian children, speaking about their 'forcible adoption' and erasing their identity."

"Russia emphasises yet again that any accusations it faces of deporting Ukrainian children are totally groundless and misleading," according to a ministry statement.

"This was exclusively a matter of evacuating from combat zones minors whose lives were at risk."

Edited by: Keith Walker