One of the drones that flew over Pyongyang earlier this month carrying propaganda leaflets crashed and the North Koreans were able to extract information from it to determine it came from South Korea:
North Korea said Monday that its analysis of the flight log of a drone that crashed in Pyongyang earlier this month showed it took off from a South Korean border island in the Yellow Sea, insisting that the South Korean military is behind what it claimed were South Korea’s drone incursions.
South Korea’s military called the North’s latest claim “unilateral,” saying it is “unworthy” of verifying or responding to.
North Korea earlier claimed that South Korean drones carrying anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets were detected in the night skies over Pyongyang three times this month and threatened to respond with force if such flights occur again.
Announcing the final results of its probe into the drone incursions, North Korea’s defense ministry said it has analyzed the flight control program from the remains of a drone that crashed after intruding into the North on Oct. 8, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The North said the drone took off from South Korea’s border island of Baengnyeong in the Yellow Sea at 11:25:30 p.m. on Oct. 8 and intruded into the territorial air of North Korea.
A few years ago who would have imagined that North Korean troops and their flag would be flying over a Eastern European country?:
A pro-Russia Telegram account has posted a photo showing the Russian and North Korean flags side by side on a Ukrainian battlefield, indicating that North Korea has likely sent troops to support Russia in its prolonged war with Ukraine.
The image, shared by a blogger named @rvvoenkor_bot on Monday, showed the two flags raised together over a mine in Pokrovsk, one of the strongholds on Ukraine’s eastern front.
The blogger said that the North Korean flag has recently been raised on a hill at the mine near the city, which is one of the suspected locations where North Korean soldiers are believed to be stationed.
The ROK is informing North Korean Soldiers along the DMZ that they could potentially become cannon fodder in Putin’s war in Ukraine:
The South Korean loudspeakers blaring at the Demilitarized Zone are causing pain for the residents of the nearby Unification Village, the village chief told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday. Since Monday, the South Korean armed forces’ “Voice of Freedom” has been broadcasting around-the-clock to North Koreans that their troops are deployed to Russia to support the invasion of Ukraine, Lee Wanbae said.
“Not only me but also my villagers have been hearing the anti-Pyongyang loudspeaker broadcasts all day long every day,” he said. “The military broadcasts it from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. … and it is very loud. So, our ears are starting to hurt.” Unification Village, in a buffer zone just outside the DMZ, is just over a mile from the no-man’s land dividing the two countries.
N Korean soldiers picking up gear, water etc. in Russian Far East before deployment to Ukraine. N Korean officer heard uttering, "Step out of the way," "Follow closely [man in front of you]," "Hey, take the water," etc in unmistakable N Korean intonation & accent. @TokyoTom2020https://t.co/HM9dtNczdo
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.
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.
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.
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.
It looks like the North Korean cannon fodder for Putin’s war in Ukraine may be more than originally believed:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that North Korea is preparing to send around 10,000 soldiers to Russia to support its war against Ukraine, calling the development “a big problem.”
Zelenskyy cited Ukrainian intelligence reports indicating that North Korean personnel have already been deployed in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, with additional troops being prepared to join the fight.
“We know about 10,000 soldiers of North Korea that they are preparing to send to fight against us,” Zelenskyy said during a press conference in Brussels after the European Union summit. “That’s really, I think, a big problem.”
Zelenskyy suggested that Russia is relying on North Korean forces to compensate for its substantial troop losses, as many young Russians seek to avoid conscription.
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin is afraid of mobilization very much because social opinion is against his,” he said. “That’s why he (Putin) is trying to involve other participants of this war.”
It looks like North Koreans are getting closer to becoming cannon fodder in Putin’s war in Ukraine:
The defense ministry said Wednesday it is “closely” monitoring for signs of North Korea possibly sending troops to support Russia in its war against Ukraine, following media reports of Russia forming a battalion of North Koreans.
Ukrainian media outlets earlier reported that Russia is organizing a special battalion that is expected to include up to 3,000 North Koreans due to manpower shortages amid concerns over deepening military cooperation between the two countries.
“As there is a possibility of (North Korea) providing troops or civilian personnel, this is being closely monitored,” a ministry official said when asked about the reports.
