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— Statement of the 4th Administrative Department of the DPRK ISG on the Restoration of the Friendship Club with Korea at Voronezh State University —

No progressive movement is immune to the appearance of "random" or hostile elements within its ranks. Unfortunately, our DPRK International Solidarity Group (DPRK ISG), which has significantly expanded in recent months, also periodically becomes a target for unreliable individuals. However, thanks to a clear structure and vigilance, we manage to identify and suppress such threats in a timely manner, guaranteeing the safety of our activists.

Following the results of an unscheduled inspection initiated by the 4th Administrative Department of the DPRK ISG, facts of gross sabotage, systematic disruption of organizational work, and actions discrediting the reputation of our Group by the former head of the primary cell at Voronezh State University (VSU) have been identified and stopped.

The direct reason was a report by activist Mikhail Prudushchenko, presented on January 5, 2026, to Comrade Alexander Mostov, Director of the 4th Administrative Department of the DPRK ISG.

The report outlined the facts of Alexander Sprinsky's appropriation of the official page of the Friendship Club with Korea (VSU) and its renaming to "KFA Russia" on December 31, 2025. This incident is regarded as deliberate sabotage and an attempt to seize the Group's information resource.

During the internal investigation, based on testimonies from activists and screenshots provided by Club activists, the following was established:

1. For the entire period since receiving permission (from Ivan Kozlov, Regional Secretary of the DPRK ISG for the Central Federal District of the Russian Federation) to create the club, Alexander Sprinsky organized only one "formal" event, completely sabotaging plans for broader work. Furthermore, the reports he published, including about the "organizational meeting," turned out to be false. No meeting as such was held; several staged photographs were taken for reporting purposes.

2. As head of the Club, Sprinsky did not even discuss with the Club's curator, Professor Maxim Valeryevich Kirchanov, the issue of allocating a classroom for meetings and events. This behavior is explained by Sprinsky's lack of genuine interest in the functioning of the Friendship Club. Most of the students who became the first participants also showed passivity, as Sprinsky recruited members literally from the first available individuals. Neither the desire to study aspects of the DPRK nor the degree of students' workload was taken into account.

3. Sprinsky deliberately ignored the established protocol of interaction, blocking direct contacts between activists and the leadership of the DPRK ISG Russian Executive Committee. Moreover, Sprinsky did not even register the activists, using their labor to write articles and publications, which he then presented as achievements of his "subordinates." Reports and initiatives from activists were redirected to third-party structures (KFA), using DPRK ISG resources to strengthen his personal authority in an external organization.

4. To legitimize his arbitrariness in the eyes of the activists, Sprinsky, who was not even a voting member of our Group, misled university students, passing off KFA souvenir products as "gifts from the DPRK." He also promised activists the imminent organization of trips to the DPRK, knowingly aware of the impossibility of fulfilling this promise.

5. In correspondence with university students, Sprinsky openly mocked support for the DPRK, calling it the lot of "schizophrenics," and described the activity of creating the Club as a "cult" made for fun.

6. Sprinsky boasted about his contacts with the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, posting about it on his private page. According to Sprinsky's own words, recorded in a dialogue with students, he allegedly received gifts from the ROK Embassy for some "work," which raises more serious concerns about the motives of his activities.

7. The multi-level structure of our Group reliably protects activists from "random" or hostile elements trying to infiltrate the organization. Probably, realizing that the structure of the DPRK ISG would not allow him to become a full member of our Group based on fake reports alone, Sprinsky made contact with a less protected organization without representation in Russia, hoping to become its representative in this country.

Based on the above and in accordance with the authority to ensure the safety of activists, the 4th Administrative Department of the DPRK ISG adopted the following decisions, which came into force on January 6, 2026:

1. Alexander Sprinsky is immediately suspended from all duties related to the DPRK ISG and excluded from the list of activists. All his statements on behalf of the Group are deemed illegitimate.

2. Maxim Marchenko is appointed as the new head of the Friendship Club with Korea (VSU), and Mikhail Prudushchenko as his deputy.

3. Urgent measures have been taken to register activists, and new official Club resources have been created.

4. The VSU leadership and the Club's curator have been fully informed of the situation.

The new leadership of the Club declares its complete openness to interaction with students and readiness to implement all planned educational events dedicated to the DPRK. The work of the cell has been restored and continues in strict accordance with the internal rules of VSU.

In one of the correspondences with his deputy, who refused to comply with demands to falsify reports and deceive university students, Sprinsky admits that he created the Club only to "add a line" to his resume and get "some stuff." Well, we will make sure that this "line" becomes the most prominent in the biography of this "remarkable" individual.

Information about the actions of Alexander Sprinsky, including his questionable interaction with the diplomatic mission of an unfriendly state (the ROK), has been transferred to the relevant authorities of the Russian Federation.

For us, it is not of particular importance whether Sprinsky's "work" involved information gathering, or whether the ROK Embassy gave him gifts for his "pretty eyes," or whether he was merely boasting about non-existent "achievements." Establishing this fact is outside our competence. We are well aware of other hostile activities by ROK elements, such as attempts at bribery and data collection under the guise of "journalistic investigations," and therefore we will take any threats to the very future of people's diplomacy — the activists of youth clubs — with the utmost seriousness.

The main task of the 4th Administrative Department and the entire leadership of the DPRK ISG is to ensure the safety and protect the interests of our activists. We will not allow the honest enthusiasm of young people to be used for alien purposes, nor will we allow Friendship Clubs to become objects of hostile influence or propaganda speculations, akin to the film "The Mole."

If you keep jumping on the same rake, you can break your head. We express the hope that representatives of other organizations, taking into account their previous painful experience and the deteriorating international situation, will seriously approach security issues and refrain from admitting

Taking this opportunity, we remind you that all DPRK ISG activists have the right to file complaints against leading officials and persons acting on behalf of our Group with the 4th Administrative Department.

February 2, 2026

Beijing (PRC)

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