There are growing reports that North Korea is sending as many as 3,000 troops to assist Russia in its war on Ukraine. If true, it would not only be the latest example of Pyongyang helping Moscow, but also further proof of a growing closeness between those two capitals, Beijing, and Tehran. It’s been variously called the new “axis of evil,” or the “quartet of chaos,” but whatever the moniker, the four countries are stymieing a range of United States and Western interests around the world.
3000 troops of one of the largest army in the world can only mean this is a test to see how the western democracies will react. Once they are sure there will be no reaction, more troops will follow.
I hope I’m wrong.
Also, this may likely be a strategic move to prevent South Korea from weapons deliveries by putting them in an awkward situation?
This sounds like good news for South Korea to me. North Korea has not communicated it is sending troops, so South Korea has no official way of knowing that arms sent by South Korea to Ukraine will kill North Koreans. So the only thing South Korea needs to do to significantly reduce the threat of North Korea on at the South Korean border is send arms to Ukraine. Geopolitically this would be quite a win for South Korea.
Sadly there’s no doubt that you’re right.
More saliently this may be a chance for that army - which hasn’t seen serious combat for the greater part of a century - to gain actual wartime experience, which might one day be used against the South Koreans.
There will be no North Korean survivors to return to North Korea. Russians will use them in meat waves to the point of complete liquidation. Russians do it to any troops they have from anywhere. They won’t spare North Koreans.
That’s the dream and goal!
However, we do see articles about the clever Russian who got sent to the front and then managed to get back home to Russia.
E.g. https://www.economist.com/1843/2024/10/11/escape-from-the-meat-grinder-the-making-of-a-russian-deserter and https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/09/20/magazine/ukraine-russia-war-deserter.html
North Korea doesn’t really care about their soldiers. They’re willing to risk all of them on the chance that even a small handful come back alive (i.e. not flee) with hardened battlefield experience to use against South Korean and the United States in the future.
I think you and I are right to be concerned.
These soldiers have been spotted doing military exercises in occupied Ukraine, near Marieopol, Donetsk.
Overall, in the news they’ve mentioned 10K to 13 K NK soldiers off late. And they’re probably up to no go good in Donetsk or like some said training for a future conflict in N & S Korea.
I’m unsure as how the western allies will or should respond, except to view this is a new provocation and escalation of war. NK has openly put their boots in occupied Donetsk.
Update According to Guardian , " NIS said North Korean soldiers were given Russian military uniforms and Russian-made weapons and were issued with fake ID cards of residents of Yakutia and Buryatia, two regions in Siberia.
“It appears that they disguised themselves as Russian soldiers to hide the fact that they were deployed to the battlefield,” the agency said.
As to the question what are they doing and what will they be doing; they aren’t planning to help rebuild Ukraine or offer humanitarian help, I reckon.