
North Korean conscripted soldiers endure brutal conditions, grappling with severe shortages of essentials — from bullets for training to food — and at times survive on corn powder or even moldy rice, according to a report by a South Korean state-run research institute.
The Korea Institute for National Unification on Monday released a report titled "Military Life of North Korean People," detailing the harsh realities faced by North Korean conscripts under the Kim Jong-un regime.
The findings are based on extensive research, including in-depth interviews in 2024 with 27 male and female defectors who served in the North Korean military. Except for two individuals who fled to South Korea in 2009 and 2010, the defectors left the North under Kim Jong-un’s rule, mostly between 2015 and 2020.
The report stated that testimonies from the defectors, all of whom remained anonymous, indicated that the North Korean authorities failed to provide soldiers with sufficient "expendable materials," including bullets for rifle training and other drills.
A defector who served in the North Korean army from 2011 to 2015 before fleeing to South Korea in 2018 said soldiers were given just three bullets each during the rare shooting drills that took place.
“You can't really call that sufficient. We were given just three rounds — how is that enough? You need to fire at least a full magazine to say you've had proper training,” the defector said. “Three shots — bang, bang, bang — and that was it.”
The defector said their guard post, which housed two squads, had to share just 50 rounds — leaving each soldier with only about three bullets.
A second anonymous defector, who served in the army from 2004 to 2013 before fleeing to South Korea in 2019, recalled, "If we hit all our targets with the three rounds, we were given one extra bullet."
But live ammunition was rarely used in training. Instead, soldiers practiced aiming with a small, needle-like device — about half the size of a cigarette — inserted in place of a bullet.
“We didn’t wear steel helmets there. As for clothing, we were issued a single uniform before deployment and had only two or three undershirts,” recalled a third anonymous defector, who served in the Army from 2008 to 2012 before fleeing to South Korea that same year.
However, the report clarified that North Korean defectors generally agreed that while non-consumable supplies and equipment provided to soldiers — excluding items like ammunition — were not abundant, they were not so scarce as to be considered severely lacking.
KINU analyzed that despite the Kim Jong-un regime's rhetoric about improving civilian living standards, it continues to prioritize resource allocation to the military.

Severe food shortages
More notably, there was no disagreement about food shortages in the military.
The report found that nearly all interviewees, particularly male defectors, consistently described military meals as "both poor in quality and severely insufficient in quantity."
A fourth anonymous defector, who served in the navy from 2010 to 2017 before fleeing to South Korea in 2019, said food was scarce on their first assignment — an antiaircraft artillery unit located far from the navy headquarters where they later served.
“The conditions there were extremely poor,” the defector said. “Even the corn we received wasn’t whole kernels -- it was just corn powder. Due to poor storage, I sometimes had to eat rice covered in blue-green mold."
The defector added that on good days, soldiers had soybean paste soup.
“Otherwise, it was nothing more than saltwater or watered-down soy sauce,” the defector recounted.
“As for side dishes, it was the ‘salted trio’ — salted napa cabbage and salted radish,” the defector said, noting that even these were in short supply.
In the spring, soldiers received only three small pieces of bread made from barley or whole wheat.
A fifth defector, who served in the Army from 2015 to 2019 before fleeing to South Korea, testified that soldiers relied heavily on corn as their staple food.
“Sometimes we got rice, sometimes we didn’t — it was inconsistent,” the defector said. “Flour was hardly common.”
KINU pointed out that "a considerable number of defectors either used money sent by their parents to ease their hunger when given the chance to leave their bases or directly witnessed such occurrences."
The report also noted that North Korean soldiers were mobilized for farming to secure their own food, despite the military being given priority in food allocation.
A sixth defector, who served in the army from 2006 to 2013 before defecting to South Korea in 2015, stated that soldiers “usually woke up at 4 a.m. for farming, or at 5 a.m. when it rained.”
"Upon waking up, if the day's task was assigned as 'weeding,' then we would spend the entire day just weeding."