It is ironic that North Korea is claiming imperialists are threatening Russia’s territory when it is the imperialist Russians that have taken Ukrainian territory:
This photo, carried by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on Nov. 30, 2024, shows the North’s leader Kim Jong-un (L) meeting with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov in Pyongyang the previous day.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has met Russia’s visiting defense minister and expressed his support for Russia’s war against Ukraine, state media reported Saturday, amid deepening military cooperation between the two nations.
Kim had a “friendly and trustworthy” meeting with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov in Pyongyang on Friday, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Belousov arrived in North Korea the previous day for a visit that came as North Korea has sent thousands of its troops to Russia in support of Moscow’s war against Ukraine. (……..)
He affirmed that “the DPRK government, army and people will invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity from the imperialists’ moves for hegemony,” the KCNA said, using the acronym of North Korea’s official name.
At this point I don’t know why Russia would want to disguise North Korea’s Soldiers. Everyone knows they are there:
A group of North Korean soldiers disguised as “indigenous people” of Russia’s Far East have engaged in combat with Ukrainian troops in Russia’s western border region of Kursk, according to a Ukraine news report.
Citing Kyiv’s top military officer, RBC Ukraine on Sunday (local time) reported that more than 11,000 North Korean soldiers are already stationed in the Kursk region and have take part in battles against Ukrainian troops.
“These are mostly general military units. They are disguised as indigenous people of the Far East. They have the appropriate documents,” Anatolii Barhylevych, the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was quoted as saying.
Who knows how true this is, but this is what Ukraine is claiming a missile strike into Russia’s Kursk province has caused:
A Ukrainian media outlet has reported that about 500 North Korean soldiers were killed in a missile strike by Kyiv in Russia’s western Kursk region.
Citing Global Defense Corp., a defense news publisher, RBC Ukraine said the North Korean soldiers were killed “as a result of the Storm Shadow missile strike on the Kursk region.”
South Korean and U.S. officials said North Korea sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia in support of its invasion against Ukraine.
This CNN report from Ukraine is just another example of how much of a failure sanctions on the North Korean regime have been:
CNN’s Nick Paton Walsh visits a warehouse storing missile fragments in Kyiv, where investigators discover US circuitry inside North Korean missiles after a deadly strike.
You can watch the full video at the link, but sanctions are not going to work with North Korea as long as China continues to allow goods to be smuggled in to sustain the regime.
North Korea may end up sending as many as 100,000 troops to help the Russian war effort, which could be transformative. THERE IS NO WAY THIS COULD HAPPEN WITHOUT CHINA'S APPROVAL. https://t.co/q2hefgyDIX
As has been predicted here by myself and other ROK Heads, North Korean troops are being used to push Ukrainian troops out of Russia’s Kursk region:
The United States confirmed Tuesday that North Korean troops, who have been deployed to Russia’s western front-line Kursk region, have begun engaging in combat operations against Ukrainian forces.
Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department, made the remarks amid growing concerns that the North’s troop deployment could expand Moscow’s protracted war in Ukraine with security implications for both Europe and the Indo-Pacific region. (…..)
“Today, I can confirm that over 10,000 DPRK soldiers have been sent to eastern Russia, and most of them have moved to far western Kursk Oblast, where they have begun engaging in combat operations with Russian forces,” he added.
You can read more at the link, but using the North Koreans to fight in Kursk makes sense because Russia would then not need to redeploy their own troops continuing their long grinding offensive in Ukraine.
If the focus of a summit is denuclearization of North Korea it would be a pointless meeting because Kim Jong-un will never agree to getting rid of his nukes. However, negotiating away his ICBM program and stopping proliferation I think are achievable goals:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un may seek another summit over its nuclear program with US President-elect Donald Trump following his second-term win, but the chances for a meaningful deal appear to be lower, given the North’s enhanced nuclear capabilities, analysts said.
During his first term, Trump hosted the first-ever summit between American and North Korean leaders with Kim in Singapore in 2018, followed by another summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, the next year. But they failed to produce a deal to curb North Korea’s nuclear program.
