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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.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the ROK sending Ukraine artillery shells seems to clearly be on the table now as well.

Tweet of the Day: North Korean Soldiers Being Issued Gear in Russia

Picture of the Day: BTS Member J-Hope Completes Military Service

BTS' J-Hope completes obligatory military service
BTS’ J-Hope completes obligatory military service
J-Hope, a member of the K-pop supergroup BTS, salutes upon his discharge from the 36th Army Infantry Division boot camp in Wonju, about 85 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Oct. 17, 2024, after completing 18 months of mandatory military service, becoming the second member of the band to do so, following the oldest member, Jin. (Yonhap)

44% of Deaths of Foreigners in South Korea are Undetermined

If you are a foreigner and pass away in South Korea, there is a high probability your loved ones will not know how you died:

The government has failed to establish the causes of more than 40 percent of deaths of foreign nationals who died in Korea in recent years, a Ministry of Justice report shows.

According to the report disclosed Saturday by Rep. Cha Gyu-geun of the minor opposition Rebuilding Korea Party, 15,325 foreign nationals died in Korea between 2018 and 2022.

A total of 7,698 of them, or 50 percent, were confirmed to have died of disease, followed by car accidents (211), natural causes (177), falling (155), self-harm (152), natural disasters (71), drowning (61), homicides (19) and addiction (10).

Most notably, a staggering 44.2 percent, or 6,771 deaths, were attributed to “other” causes, meaning the reasons were unclear. This figure is significantly higher compared to the number of deaths among Korean nationals.

According to data released by Statistics Korea, the No. 1 cause of death of Koreans in 2022 was cancer, followed by heart disease, COVID-19 and pneumonia. “Others” are not among the top 10 causes listed.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

North Korea Calls Out U.N. for Double Standards After Criticism for Destroying DMZ Roads

North Korea kind of does have a point, it can do what it wants with things on their sovereign territory:

North Korea accused U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of “double standards” Sunday, saying he urged Pyongyang to exercise restraint following its destruction of inter-Korean roads while remaining silent about South Korea’s alleged drone infiltration into the North.

Kim Son-gyong, North Korea’s vice foreign minister for international organizations, issued the statement after Guterres called for efforts to ease tensions and resume dialogue after the North blew up roads and rail lines on its side of the heavily fortified border on Tuesday. 

“I express deep displeasure over and categorically reject the remarks of interfering in the internal affairs” of North Korea, Kim said in the statement carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

Kim claimed the destruction of roads and rail lines within its territory falls under North Korea’s “sovereign right from A to Z” and should not be subject to interference from the U.N. secretary-general.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

North Korea Launched 20 More Trash Balloons Towards South Korea

It might be time for the ROK to start flying propaganda drones over Pyongyang again in response. This has clearly been something that got the Kim regime’s attention the last time they did it:

This picture shows trash-carrying balloons floating over Mount Nam in Seoul, Oct. 12. Yonhap

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said the trash-loaded balloons were sent across the border between Saturday night and early Sunday and the fallen objects were household waste, such as paper and vinyl, and included no hazardous items.

The number of dropped items does not necessarily correspond to the number of balloons, as each balloon, which measures approximately 2 to 3 meters in diameter and 3 to 4 meters in length, usually contains several smaller bags.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

ROK Intelligence Says Satellite Photos Show Up to 12,000 North Korean Soldiers Deployed to Russia

It will be interesting to see when these large formations of North Korean Soldiers begin appearing on the frontlines in Ukraine:

A satellite image provided by the National Intelligence Service on Oct. 18, 2024, shows a Russian naval vessel suspected of transporting North Korean troops from the northeastern port of Chongjin. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

A satellite image provided by the National Intelligence Service on Oct. 18, 2024, shows a Russian naval vessel suspected of transporting North Korean troops from the northeastern port of Chongjin. 

One of the three pictures that South Korea’s intelligence agency disclosed as evidence of North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia was captured by a satellite that the South has been operating, a government source said Sunday.

Two of the three photos were attributed to Airbus, a global satellite imagery provider, but the third was not attributed when the National Intelligence Service (NIS) presented them Friday while confirming the North’s deployment of troops to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

Disclosing the satellite images, the NIS said that the North has decided to send around 12,000 troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine and has already deployed 1,500 special forces troops to Vladivostok.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.