Summary

North Korean soldiers supporting Russia in its war with Ukraine are reportedly using suicide tactics to avoid capture, as seen in a recent incident where a soldier detonated a grenade during a Ukrainian operation.

Ukraine claims North Korea has deployed 11,000 troops, with over 3,000 killed or injured.

Defectors and analysts suggest these soldiers are brainwashed into sacrificing themselves for Kim Jong Un and fear being labeled traitors if captured.

Kyiv has offered to exchange captured North Korean soldiers for Ukrainians held in Russia.

Experts warn this deployment may enhance North Korea’s future military capabilities.

  • @NOT_RICKEnglish
    17•20 hours ago

    There’s a lot of evidence that North Koreans are serving in Kursk if you take your head out of the sand. I’ve seen footage of soldiers signing paperwork in Korean, talking to one another in Korean, etc.

    I also don’t know why Ukraine would waste effort dropping leaflets written in Korean just for some kind of psyop.

    • @TokenBoomerEnglish
      -12•18 hours ago

      Today, we find ourselves subjected to another narrative, repeated relentlessly despite a lack of concrete evidence. As for those who call for evidence, they will quickly find the onus placed on them to prove there aren’t North Koreans in Ukraine—a task as impossible as it is absurd. In the end, the goal isn’t to share or establish the truth, but to shape public belief. And for a credulous, uncritical, and largely media-illiterate public, that goal is too easily achieved—and with far too little at that.

      • @NOT_RICKEnglish
        10•18 hours ago

        I read that. I’m not asking you to prove a negative. I’m telling you of evidence I’ve seen that supports Ukraine’s claim. “Everyone that doesn’t agree with my assessment is media-illiterate” isn’t a convincing argument.

        I might add that North Korea and Russia not talking about this isn’t evidence there isn’t troop sharing. Russia still hasn’t taken responsibility for shooting down yet another commercial airliner but it’s plainly evident they did. Ukraine doesn’t claim responsibility for many of their drone attacks or sabotage in Russia but it’s plainly evident that they’re responsible.

        I expect more North Koreans will be captured in due time, it will no longer be argued that they are fighting in Kursk, and the goalposts will be moved.

        • @TokenBoomerEnglish
          -10•17 hours ago

          The point of the article isn’t to determine the truth of North Koreans in Ukraine, it’s to explain why a belief in the narrative is the goal. 🥅

          Reported, corroborated, confirmed, believes – a variety of words to disguise the fact that no evidence is being presented.

          It is very likely that there are North Korean troops in Russia, in various places, doing various things – training, liaison, systems maintenance, etc. – but to call this an escalation that represents the entry of a third state into the conflict is misleading because this has always been a war between Russia and NATO with Ukraine merely being the disposable tip of the essentially American spear. It is a mythical threat contrived to draw NATO into direct, rather than proxy war with Russia.

          • @NOT_RICKEnglish
            8•17 hours ago

            I find it disingenuous to call Ukraine the tip of the spear when they’re the country being invaded. They’re more of a shield for the rest of Europe than anything. No amount of hand wringing about Victoria Nuland changes the fact that Russia started this war when they invaded a sovereign nation that voted for their own independence not all that long ago, Crimea included.

            • @TokenBoomerEnglish
              -7•14 hours ago

              You seem to want to have a discussion about the merits of the war. My original comment was to bring awareness to the dis/misinformation from western media sources. We can discuss the invasion, but it might help to have some context:

              A number of former US ambassadors to Moscow have also warned, at stages, about the dangers. In 1997, it was Jack Matlock, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. At the time, the Clinton administration’s recommendation to enlarge NATO membership was considered “misguided. If it should be approved by the United States Senate, it may well go down in history as the most profound strategic blunder made since the end of the Cold War.”

              Eight years later, William J. Burns, then still ambassador to Russia and currently director of the CIA, shot a number of flares on the issue: “Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin).”

              This 37 second YouTube video shows that even Joe Biden knew it could lead to war. In 1997, he warned that NATO expansion into Baltic States could cause a response.