Russia to send children to North Korean summer camp
Russia is planning to send children to North Korea's Sondovon summer camp, Grigory Gurov, head of Russia's pro-Kremlin youth group Movement of the First, said on June 29, state news agency TASS reported.
The announcement follows the signing of a strategic partnership agreement by Russia and North Korea on June 19. Pyongyang has also been supplying Moscow with ammunition for use in the full-scale war against Ukraine.
According to Gurov, the trip to the North Korean camp is scheduled for late July. Russia will send groups of children who will be accompanied by counselors, he added.
"We are now planning joint camp shifts... We are planning children's exchanges," Gurov said.
He called Sondovon an equivalent of the Artek summer camp in Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula.
The European Union imposed sanctions on Artek earlier in June, saying that Russia was bringing children from occupied territories of Ukraine there.
The Russian occupation government in Crimea has enrolled Ukrainian children in re-education programs at Artek in an effort to brainwash them in line with Kremlin propaganda.
Moscow also continues to set up military training camps for Ukrainian teenagers in other Russian-occupied territories.
Russia also has arrangements to visit China and Vietnam this year and plans to sign agreements with youth organizations in other countries, Gurov said.
Chris York
