South Korea Considering Sending Small Contingent of Intelligence Troops to Assist Ukraine
This would be bold of South Korea to send troops to Ukraine when even the U.S. hasn’t officially sent any American troops to Ukraine yet:
South Korea is considering sending a team of personnel to Ukraine to monitor North Korean troops being deployed to support Russia, a government source said Tuesday.
Last week, Seoul’s spy agency said North Korea sent some 1,500 special forces to Russia this month to take part in the war in Ukraine. The North is expected to dispatch a total of 12,000 troops from an elite special forces unit, according to an intelligence source.
“There is a possibility that personnel will be sent to Ukraine to monitor the tactics and combat capabilities of North Korean special forces dispatched in support of Russia,” the source said.
If deployed, the team is expected to be composed of military personnel from intelligence units, who could analyze North Korean battlefield tactics or take part in interrogations of captured North Koreans.
You can read more at the link, but the ROK sending Ukraine artillery shells seems to clearly be on the table now as well.
SOUTH KOREA CONSIDERING SENDING SMALL CONTINGENT OF INTELLIGENCE TROOPS TO ASSIST UKRAINE
…or…
South Korea Considering How They Can Get Involved in WW3.
“Assist Ukraine” is none of South Korea’s business.
Monitoring North Korea is.
South Korea needs to be very clear with Russia that the purpose is to look out for South Korea and not work against Russia or for Ukraine.
South Korea needs a very loud and clear policy:
“Your conflict is none of our business. Our business is selling you weapons to resolve it.”
Bonus Thought:
Every North Korean artillary shell the Russians fire in Ukraine is one fewer that can be fired into Seoul.
I understand there is likely some sort of pressure to counter Norkistan moves; but South Korea does not need to send their young men to defend a country whose leaders have literally cancelled elections and become unelected tyrants.
It would be far better to sell war materials to NATO countries and let them, if they are so inclined, feed their own people into the wood-chipper. Training for war does not require South Korea to immolate itself. Ukraine is not important for the defense of South Korea.
Last June, Victor Davis Hanson wrote an excellent column:
https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/opinion-columns/victor-davis-hanson/victor-davis-hanson-stop-the-ukrainian-meat-grinder-3077827/
South Korea should play it smart and avoid copying equally ill-advised North Korean moves.
Ah yes, the Russiabots are at it again.
The Russians lost 10,000 men last week – one of the worst weeks for them in terms of casualties. They are so desperate that they have hired 10,000 ( and more to come) North Korean slave army. Russians are banking on Trump to win the election. So the Russians are fighting and attacking recklessly in their attempt to gain as much territory as possible before the peace negotiations led by Trump’s victory. Will Trump’s election victory let the Russians off the hook, so that Russia can regroup and come back to attack Ukraine again four years later when Trump is gone? Just watch the Russian state TV discussing the desperate situation for Russia, deciding on what to do with North Korean slaves versus drafting more 18-year-old Russians to die.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he5mlEYWCaY
It’s hard to know the casualties on both sides of the war in Ukraine.
There are some things we can see clesrly. Can they teach us anything?
– We can count artillary craters and see the Russians are firing about 10 times the artillary. Is that a good proxy for casualties?
– We can see Russian soldiers are getting leave while Ukrainian soldiers are not. By every metric, from age to condition, they appear to be an inferior force. Does this have any influence on casualties per person? Does it indicate past casualties?
– the ratio of deaths to injuries in war has been well studied to the point more easily-observed medical actions and infrastructure can be used as a proxy for deaths. What do we observe in this war.
Every measurement seems to agree that Ukraine is losing far more soldiers than Russia in this war.
There is a feeling that Russia, like America, has little taste for dead young soldiers so is minimizing casualties with such methods as Wagner, prisoners, North Koreans, etc. Further, Russia is trading faster advancement for less risk and fewer casualties. The media reports this as a strong Ukranian army fighting orc Russians armed with shovels and stealing washing machines for their microchips becasue Russia will be out of everything by Summer 2021.
Ukraine is throwing everything at the problem without as much caution. And they appear to have a higher rate of casualties with this action.
Like many things in the world, everyone lies to themselves and then is surprised when reality turns out to be different.
The vaccine wasn’t 99.8% effective. Communism didn’t make life better. Epstein didn’t really just want a $300 back massage.
Perhaps someone has a different opinion.
According to this Korean news: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOsBtuNLvSQ
G7 and EU are working on passing $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine, using confiscated Russian money. And South Korea is contemplating directly sending K2 tanks, K9 self-prop artillery guns, Chunmoo anti-missile systems, and 155 mm shells to Ukraine. A South Korean official, is going to Europe to discuss the details with the NATO partner. I wouldn’t mind a big chunk of that laundered Russian money going into the South Korean economy. But of course, Trump will later come along and scream, “They took our defense industry too!”.
Downvotes, eh?
I guess someone has a different opinion…
…but not really bright enough to explain it.
Anyway…
Nothing says “trust our financial system” like stealing someone’s money and using it to hurt them.
It is unclear what everyone involved expects for the end result of this policy to be.
Nonetheless, that is not Korea’s problem. The policy is cash talks and weapons walk.
If Russia bitches, I would tell them clearly, “Nothing personal, comrad. Can I interest you in some artillary and the extended warranty package? We will be happy to trade for some liberated Ukranian farmland.”
Trump won’t bitch about this because it is not the same situation.
Korea exports to America but discourages American imports. Trump bitches about that… especially when Korea puts on the sad face and says, “but we are a developing country,” whenever they are expected to act in accorance with their economy.
Trump would bitch the moment Korea sold weapons to a country against America’s best interests.
But Korea needs to learn lessons from how Israel deals with America in these situations:
“Yes, but this is different. Shall we contribute to your campaign or do you want it to be known that you are an antisemite?”
I haven’t heard that line in almost twenty years. I suggest you flip your calendar pages forward to 2024.