• @DaddleDew
    link
    English
    1932 months ago

    Imagine living in a 1950’s time bubble. You are being constantly told through propaganda that your military force is cutting edge and that it can easily overwhelm any enemy.

    Then you are being sent to fight on a battlefield where everyone has better gear than you, where you are confronted to weapons that are so far advanced beyond anything that you’ve ever seen they might as well be magic. Then you see said weapons completely obliterate your comrades without giving you a chance to even see the enemy who operates them.

    You only obeyed so far because you feared what your government might do to you if you didn’t. Now you’ve found something that you fear even more.

    • @Num10ck
      link
      English
      682 months ago

      imagine them seeing the drone for the first time.

        • @Wispy2891
          link
          English
          222 months ago

          For the first and last time 😟

          • @WhatYouNeed
            link
            English
            62 months ago

            Hey (pointing skywards), is that a dro…

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              82 months ago

              An Outside Context Problem was the sort of thing most civilizations encountered just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop.

        • @shalafi
          link
          English
          132 months ago

          Not sure they even hear them. I’ve watched 1,000 Russians die, clueless anything was targeting them.

          • @P00ptart
            link
            English
            -82 months ago

            Some, it depends how high they are. I’ve also seen a lot of em being chased. It’s good for the lulz.

    • @Zess
      link
      English
      352 months ago

      You’re also used to standing around guarding a border all the time, not experiencing actual combat at all.

      • @DaddleDew
        link
        English
        262 months ago

        And by “guarding the border” it really means “shooting anyone trying to escape”

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        352 months ago

        Novel? As in a book of fiction? This is happening right now. I am sure some video of this will come out of this sad story and maybe in a few years some of these people who surrendered will be able to write their own story first hand. (I am assuming they will not want to go back to nk).

        • DominusOfMegadeus
          link
          fedilink
          English
          112 months ago

          Yeah, a fictional account of a current situation is pretty preposterous, you’re right. Dunno what I was thinking.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        9
        edit-2
        2 months ago

        I threw it into ChatGPT, then asked them to change the name from Henry to one common in Korea.

        In-soo had always believed the stories. The glossy propaganda reels, the posters of steely-eyed soldiers, and the speeches from government officials all painted the same picture: his country’s military was unmatched, unstoppable. Though the world had advanced, In-soo’s nation remained locked in a past vision of itself, proudly touting its military might, using technology that hadn’t evolved much beyond the 1950s. Tanks, planes, and rifles that his father might’ve used were still standard issue. It was enough, they said, to overwhelm any enemy.

        But when they arrived on the battlefield, the illusion shattered.

        The air was thick with smoke and dust. In-soo clutched his rifle, a relic from an era that felt like ancient history. He could hear the hum of something—machines, weapons, drones? He didn’t know. The enemy was out there, but they remained invisible, their presence felt only through strange, high-pitched frequencies and flashes of light. He had been trained for combat in a conventional sense, but this wasn’t war as he understood it.

        A blinding flash erupted in the distance. Seconds later, half his squad was gone, reduced to nothing more than ash. No gunfire, no warning—just a blip, and they were vaporized. In-soo froze. This wasn’t warfare. It was annihilation. The weapons being used against them were so advanced they were beyond his comprehension, like something out of a nightmare. Weapons that didn’t give him a chance to even see who—or what—was operating them.

        “Stay together!” his commanding officer shouted, but it didn’t matter. How could they stay together when they couldn’t even see what was killing them? Panic surged through the ranks. Soldiers who had once stood tall, believing in their nation’s invincibility, now scattered in terror, desperate to survive.

        In-soo crouched behind a rusted piece of machinery, gripping his rifle tightly, though he knew it was useless. He had been afraid of disobeying orders, terrified of what his government would do to him if he didn’t serve. But now, that fear felt insignificant. The enemy’s technology wasn’t just more advanced—it was like magic, bending the very rules of reality.

        He glanced at the scorched earth where his comrades once stood, feeling a deep, gnawing helplessness. They weren’t soldiers anymore. They were bodies—disappearing in a war where they never stood a chance. In-soo had always feared the consequences of deserting or refusing to fight, but now, a new terror gripped him: the realization that he was facing something far worse than his government’s threats.

        The certainty that had once bolstered him was gone. All that remained was the fear of an enemy he couldn’t see, couldn’t fight, and couldn’t even begin to understand.

        • @shalafi
          link
          English
          122 months ago

          That’s actually pretty good! Sure, lots of tweaking to be done, but pretty good overall.

        • DominusOfMegadeus
          link
          fedilink
          English
          52 months ago

          It’s pretty alright! Too on the nose with the descriptions at first but that improved a bit as it went. I think I might give this a go myself tomorrow!

    • @itsnotits
      link
      English
      22 months ago

      you are confronted by* weapons

  • HubertManne
    link
    fedilink
    1042 months ago

    my first thought when nk sent troops was what an opportunity to get out of nk.

    • @werefreeatlast
      link
      English
      102 months ago

      NK probably loves the idea of less people?

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        232 months ago

        They aren’t going to want those 3000 troops coming back and talking about their time in the west.

        • @CheeseNoodle
          link
          English
          172 months ago

          I dunno the NK troops at least appear to have boots, so coming back and telling stories of how the ‘western’ Russian troops don’t even have shoes or ammo is probably decent propaganda for the regime.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            232 months ago

            Look at night time satellite imagery. South Korea looks like an island; the northern half of the peninsula is almost entirely dark.

            The street lamps along their route to Ukraine will be enough to give them culture shock.

  • @Stovetop
    link
    English
    782 months ago

    I know a good number of North Koreans would love to defect if there weren’t going to be consequences for their families back home. Put those people in a situation where they can just disappear and have it explained as being honorably slain in combat? Seems like a golden opportunity if the country they defect to doesn’t just send them back.

      • @Stovetop
        link
        English
        442 months ago

        Hah, got me there.

        I did actually meet a North Korean once when I spent a fair bit of time in Seoul during a study abroad program, but she “defected” as a child (read: smuggled into the South via China by some Christian group) and didn’t really have much recollection of what life in the North was even like. Definitely not many though!

        • @AbidanYre
          link
          English
          302 months ago

          One is more than a lot of us can claim.

        • @slaacaa
          link
          English
          10
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          One of my parents was in North Korea multiple times in the 80s as a tour guide from the Eastern Block, I remember hearing the stories about it when I was a child.

          Cameras being taken, poverty housing blocked off with walls, fake buildings and rooms, US soldiers watching them from the other side of the DMZ “negotiation building”.

          I always took these stories for granted, and didn’t realize for a long time how special and unique these experiences were. When I tell my Western EU colleagues they always drop their jaws.

      • @5oap10116
        link
        English
        72 months ago

        I’m a quarter NK. All the NKs I know are dead tho

    • @Valmond
      link
      English
      102 months ago

      Hi Kim, me and my whole family wants to def … go to Ukraine and die for you!!

      The whole family!

    • @wildcardology
      link
      English
      112 months ago

      I just hope they are all single and don’t have families left.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    52
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    How pathetic does Russia have to be to be bringing NORTH KOREAN troops into the war. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic.

    • @Maalus
      link
      English
      572 months ago

      What’s pathetic about it? Cannon fodder is cannon fodder. They can hold a rifle just as well as any other person, and they can use it to kill. Acting like getting foreign troops helping you is somehow beneath you in a war is insane

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        202 months ago

        Sadly, this.

        Fictional, but

        ONE OUT OF TWO GETS RIFLE. THE ONE WITHOUT, FOLLOWS HIM! WHEN THE ONE WITH THE RIFLE GETS KILLED, THE ONE WHO IS FOLLOWING PICKS UP THE RIFLE AND SHOOTS!

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              72 months ago

              I would say his character in A.I. would be my second favorite. Maybe not the greatest film, but he did a great job in his role. #1 would definitely be I ♡ Huckabees. Such a great movie, and great cast too.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          12 months ago

          Is this fictional? I thought that this was actually true from the Social Union in WWII. Maybe in the battle of Stalingrad?

    • peopleproblems
      link
      English
      32 months ago

      Its TAU TACTICS!

      LIKE KROOT! with significantly less survival rates and effectiveness which is damn impressive

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        -22 months ago

        Also the Norks cant eat their enemies and gain their traits, at least I think they cant. Can I setup a test site? I just need a Nork, a MAGA, and a hacksaw.

        • Anti-Face Weapon
          link
          English
          62 months ago

          You don’t want that. A MAGA Nork would become he next Republican nominee

    • @kmartburrito
      link
      English
      132 months ago

      I think I read somewhere 3000 to that unit / region

    • @slaacaa
      link
      English
      42 months ago

      Around 10k total I think

  • @veni_vedi_veni
    link
    English
    392 months ago

    This is great news. OTOH, these deserters condemned 3 generations of their family back home.

  • Flying SquidM
    link
    English
    382 months ago

    North Korean battle theme in Ukraine:

      • @Veneroso
        link
        English
        02 months ago

        With the yodeling guy going up the ramp just before!

  • @dogslayeggs
    link
    English
    242 months ago

    I’ll file this under “Most Easily Predicted Outcome.”

  • @HeyJoe
    link
    English
    212 months ago

    The best news.

      • GHiLA
        link
        fedilink
        English
        202 months ago

        I’ve been deployed to the woods by a country I dislike, to a country I don’t understand under the command of a country I also dislike

        …guess I’ll just leave, then.

      • @Lennny
        link
        English
        162 months ago

        Ukraine needs to kill fewer N. Koreans now. That’s a plus.

        • massive_bereavement
          link
          fedilink
          12 months ago

          I misread the headline and thought they would be sending more regular troops. Well this is both parts expected and indeed good news.

  • @captainlezbian
    link
    English
    122 months ago

    Yeah they’ll do that. You gotta make people want to stay