Category: North Korea

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.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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.

CNN

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.

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.

Yonhap

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.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Oh how nice, North Korea had a celebratory rocket show in honor of the U.S. election:

North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Tuesday, South Korea’s military said, in the latest saber-rattling just hours ahead of the U.S. presidential election.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected the launches at about 7:30 a.m. from the Sariwon area in the western province of North Hwanghae, and they flew about 400 kilometers before splashing into the sea.

A JCS official told reporters that the latest launches apparently involved the North’s KN-25 super-large 600-millimeter multiple rocket launchers. The weapon system is believed to be capable of striking anywhere in South Korea when fired from Sariwon.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is actually a pretty good deal for the Kim regime considering they only sent what appears to be a few thousand troops to Russia:

Rep. Wi Sung-lac, who was Seoul’s ambassador to Russia, told The Korea Herald that entering the war against Ukraine is “not a bad deal at all” for North Korea.

For one thing, the country’s financial and food crises are largely taken care of by Russian compensation for its contribution to the war effort, said Wi, who was briefed by the NIS as a member of the National Assembly intelligence committee.

The NIS reported to the Assembly last week that each North Korean soldier sent to fight for Russia would be paid a monthly wage of around $2,000. At least 10,000 North Korean soldiers are believed to be headed for Ukraine, translating to yearly revenue of well over $200 million, the lawmaker said.

In addition to troops, about 4,000 North Korean workers are currently in Russia, according to the NIS. Their average wage is thought to be about $800 a month.

Wi said every year on average, North Korea produces around 4 million tons of grain such as rice, barley and wheat, according to its own announcement. But most of the country’s “rice production” is actually potatoes, with rice thought to make up less than a third of the total, he explained.

“The 4 million tons of grains that North Korea says it produces per year are actually about 1 million tons short of what it needs to feed the country. If Russia is offering 600,000 to 700,000 tons of rice, that is enough to cover more than half of what North Korea would need to meet the year’s demand,” he said.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.