MEP: North Korea, like Belarus, is helping Russia abduct Ukrainian children
Dutch MEP Thijs Reuten has said that North Korea, like Belarus, is part of a system that enables Russia to abduct Ukrainian children with the aim of changing their identity, and the European Union should be sanctioning more of the individuals involved in these crimes.
Reuten helped draft the resolution on deported Ukrainian children that the European Parliament adopted on 12 November.
Reuten believes that EU sanctions for the abduction of Ukrainian children should target not only Russia's top leadership but also those directly involved in the system, including officials from Belarus and North Korea.
He said in an interview with European Pravda that North Korea's inclusion in the European Parliament's resolution on the abduction of Ukrainian children is a new development, as previously only Belarus had been mentioned. He explained that North Korea has been included this time because its representatives are part of the system that facilitates the unlawful transfer of children from Russian-occupied territories.
According to Reuten, European and Western sanctions should target not only Russia's top leadership – such as Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and Russia's children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, both of whom are subject to arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court – but also lower-level participants in the system responsible for abducting and deporting Ukrainian children and changing their identity.
The MEP stressed that sanctions should also be imposed on those directly involved in changing the identity of Ukrainian children and facilitating their unlawful transfer, including the directors of the camps where these children are taken and other officials.
He explained that the European Parliament's resolution of 12 November 2026 calls for expanded sanctions against Russian, Belarusian and North Korean officials involved in the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children, as well as organisations facilitating these activities.
In particular, the resolution states that North Korea has reportedly hosted Ukrainian children from occupied territories at the Songdowon International Children's Camp, where they were subjected to ideological indoctrination.
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on 12 November calling for Russia's actions against Ukrainian children to be recognised as genocide.
In September 2023, the European Parliament called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant for self-proclaimed Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko over the deportation of Ukrainian children.
In May 2025, the European Parliament adopted a resolution that described the actions being carried out by Russia, supported by Belarus, against abducted Ukrainian children with the aim of destroying their Ukrainian identity as a "genocidal strategy".
On 28 September 2026, the Council of the EU imposed sanctions on another 10 individuals and 17 organisations involved in the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.