9mo ago

North Koreans deployed alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, sources say

www.theguardian.com

Engineers said to be supporting missile launches and reports of North Koreans killed near Donetsk

North Korean military engineers have been deployed to help Russia target Ukraine with ballistic missiles, and North Koreans operating in occupied areas of Ukraine have already been killed, senior officials in Kyiv and Seoul said.

There are dozens of North Koreans behind Russian lines, in teams that "support launcher systems for KN-23 missiles", a source in Ukraine told the Guardian.

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, last year travelled to Russia for a summit with Vladimir Putin where the two men bolstered their deepening ties with a secret arms deal.

Pyongyang's ammunition shipments were vital in allowing Russian forces to advance in a grinding war of attrition in eastern Ukraine this summer. But it appears increasingly clear that the agreement went beyond supplying materiel.

94 comments

Imagine being an educated Russian 45 year old conscript fighting next to malnourished north koreans.
- Are we assuming the Russian conscript has a higher degree of education than the north Korean?
  They're both totalitarian shitholes shoving their own version of lies down their citizens throats.
  
  There are FAR, FAR more well educated Russians than there are North Koreans, let alone Educated North Koreans.
  
  They are worlds apart yes. Russia actually has an amazing academia network that is suffering greatly from Putins politics. Most recently seen by hundreds of academics having to stop their collaboration with CERN because of the war. Compared to NK, Russia is just a normal country with lots of IT and science nerds.
  However if you look at the US and their rural MAGA population, it shows that there can just be a massive rift within the population. And thats what you have in Russia too i would assume.
  
  I would assume that considering Russians actually have internet.
  I'm also going to assume the Russian soldiers are atleast 6 inches taller on average since South Korean soldiers are that much taller than North Korean soldiers.
- This isn't new, there have been north Korean work camps in inside of Russia for decades. It's convict leasing on a troubling international level.
We've had Russians, North Koreans, and Indians fighting in Ukraine with Chinese supplied weapons against Ukrainians armed with American, Polish, German, British, and other European weapons in a war that's been going on for nearly two years.
Can we call it a World War yet?
Or are we just going to refuse to use the word until nukes are dropped?
We can also throw in the Middle Eastern theater for good measure too if that's not enough.
- Seems to me that it's just part of the proxy war that the world powers have been fighting pretty much constantly in an Oceania/Eurasia/Eastasia kind of way since 1945.
  
  Orwellian comparison hits here
- I’d say the situation is a lot closer to the Spanish Civil War, tbh. A lot of countries sent expeditionary forces and volunteers to assist one side or the other, including Russia and Nazi Germany (who kinda used the conflict as a proving ground for the concept of combined arms doctrine we know as “blitzkrieg”).
  
  The comparison certainly makes sense. Awesome, that means we’re just a few years shy of a world war.
  
  Syria was WW3's Spanish civil war.
- Multiple boots on the ground on the Russia side, only takes boots on the ground from any nato country to qualify now. It's very close.
- Not until there are NATO boots on the ground, or NATO recognizes it is at war. Russia is already saying it is, NATO just didn't get the memo yet I guess.
  You are right in saying Russia kinda made it a world war. I guess with just the one front it just doesn't feel like it.
  
  It could be pretty easily argued that Gaza/Lebanon is another front. Iran/Russia/China axis seems to be solidifying to an extent, imo.
  Israel did just bomb a Russian airbase in Syria, after all.
  Edit: guess I didn’t say “Israel is bad” enough in my comment? Seriously, I didn’t even make any value judgments in this comment, y’all are too touchy.
  
  Yeah, the lack of boots on the ground is an important loophole. It's just arms sales.
  Indians fighting in Ukraine? I thought most of those were tricked into helping the Russian military though...
- We didn't call the cold war a world war and that wasn't in a single country
  
  Best comparison.
- I think, its time to get even with them. Just deploy some NATO member Staates troops to Ukraine. I guess Putin wont be complaining too much about it
- Not enough of the right color people have died yet.
Yet it is absolutely imperative french troops stray far away 🤡
I find it interesting that the loaned DPRK are operating ballistic missile platforms. Makes me wonder if part of the intention is to skill up some of the army units with combat launching exp, which is not the happiest thought, since NK has a continental US capable truck-launched ICBM since 2017.
Of course the plan doesn’t work if they all get killed by Ukrainian drone attacks, but NK has never been too precious about their rank and file anyway.
- These are comparatively safer positions.
  
  Yeah sounds like logistics support?
It’s going to be hilarious when Russia N. Korea and china have to pull there entire economy together to fight this one little nation and Ukraine ends up marching on every single capital.
- That sounds like an epic session of Civ V.
- Hilarious? It would be literally fantastic.
- Their
Jeebus, something is seriously wrong if you have to ask north Korea for help. 😬
Media Bias Fact Check | bot support
Ukraine gets help from its allies: I sleep
Russia gets help from its allies: 😡😡
The cognitive dissonance of Lemmy users.
- This you? Immediate block. Shame on you for supporting a mass murdering, civilian butchering, raping, children bombing, war regime.
  It’s okay to be proud of Russian culture and celebrate heritage. It’s not okay to support a war of conquests where children are stolen and civilians are slaughtered.
  
  Shame on you for supporting a mass murdering, civilian butchering, raping, children bombing, war regime.
  Please stick to the topic instead of bringing up Kamala Harris.
  
  Someone who has a different opinion that mine! Immediately blocked!
  My echo chamber is almost… ready!! 🤗
- I don't think that's happening anywhere. People are laughing at the desperation of Russia they're getting help from basically a pariah state
  
  People are laughing at the desperation of Russia they’re getting help from basically a pariah state
  Putin was seriously looking at the state of North Korea and thought "yeah, I can do that, I want that".
  
  Russia is still going strong 2 years into the war… after all these western interventions that couldn’t prevent a war.
  Sanctions mean nothing. Weapons mean nothing.
  Victory to Russia 🇷🇺
- You're... Aware that Russia invaded Ukraine, right? And all of this bloodshed, all of these senselessly sacrificed lives, could've been avoided if Russia just DIDN'T invade Ukraine?
- I don't see that happening, but people aren't going to be supporting Russia (or shouldn't) since they're the enemy in all this
  
  The enemy according to who?
  The western allies, western international law, UN, etc has showed us all last year that words like enemy, terrorist, ally is all relative.
  Israel occupies Palestine since 1948, and the western allies support it ever since, till this very day. And they also support a genocide in Gaza, Gaza being under siege, collective punishment, arming genocidal terrorists (IDF), arming illegal settlers in the West Bank.
  These same allies are supporting Ukraine. Now let‘s deduct who‘s the enemy in this formula.
  
  The enemy according to who?
  The western allies, western international law, UN, etc has showed us all last year that words like enemy, terrorist, ally is all relative.
  Israel occupies Palestine since 1948, and the western allies support it ever since, till this very day. And they also support a genocide in Gaza, Gaza being under siege, collective punishment, arming genocidal terrorists (IDF), arming illegal settlers in the West Bank.
  These same allies are supporting Ukraine. Now let‘s deduct who‘s the enemy in this formula.
- Yea that’s how invasions work.
- Ukraine:
  Russia: invades Ukraine, committing war crimes on a daily basis.
  I don't think you're eligible to judge anyone's cognitive abilities.
- LMAO!!
  We've picked a side obviously. Why would we root for the bully?
- Okay, we get to send American troops into the fight then, not just training 3,000 miles away, or sending ammunition. Actually into the fight. Russia will have nothing to complain about when 3rd ID HIMARS three minefield belts and thunder runs the Russian regional command and logistics bases.
  
  American soldiers are almost always on foreign soil.

94 comments