Tag: Ukraine

Rhee Keun is still alive in Ukraine and it will be interesting to learn at some point what the Ukraine military has him tasked to do:

 A former Korean Navy special warfare officer who recently left for Ukraine to join the war against Russia as a volunteer soldier posted news of his survival on social media Tuesday.

“I’m alive,” Rhee Keun wrote on his Instagram account in an apparent denial of recent rumors about his death after Russia claimed to have killed about 180 foreign volunteer fighters in an attack on a training base in western Ukraine.

“My teammates withdrew safely from Ukraine, and I’m alone in the country,” he said. “I have a lot of things to do. I’m busy combating every day. There will be no news from me until I complete my mission,” he added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

North Korea has commented for the first time about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and it is about what you would expect, Russia has done nothing wrong and it is all the U.S.’s fault:

North Korea spoke on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for the first time three days after the first attack. North Korea defended Russia and criticized the United States. However, Pyongyang did not specifically mention the details of Russia’s invasion and did not voice its views in an official statement released by the government, but instead released a comment by a researcher at the Society for International Politics Studies, implying the North’s complicated calculations behind the latest incident.

On February 26, the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs released on its website a post arguing that the U.S. should not tear down the foundation of international peace and stability in the name of Ri Ji-song, a researcher at the Society for International Politics Studies. Ri wrote that in every region and country that the U.S. intervened in, seeds of discord were being sowed and relationships between nations were deteriorating. He argued that this trend was being established like a principle and that this was the current international order. He further criticized, “The root cause of the Ukrainian crisis also lies in the high-handedness and arbitrariness of the U.S. which has held on solely to the unilateral sanction and pressure while pursuing only global hegemony and military supremacy in disregard of the legitimate demand of Russia for its security.” Ri cited comments by global media and experts and claimed it was no coincidence that they found the fundamental reason for the Ukrainian crisis in the “imbalance of power in Europe due to the unilateral expansion of NATO and its threat as well as the grave threat to the national security of Russia.”

Kyunghyang Shinmun

You can read more at the link, but notably no where in the statement does North Korea actually mention that Ukraine was invaded by Russia.

Showing the colors of the Ukrainian flag is now the international version of virtue signaling:

 Iconic landmarks across Seoul were lit up in the colors of the Ukrainian flag Sunday in support of the Eastern European nation under siege amid the Russian assault.

N Seoul Tower on Mount Namsan, Seoul City Hall, Sebitseom on the Han River and Seoullo Media Canvas glowed blue and yellow Sunday evening.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

With things escalating in the Ukraine it makes me wonder if North Korea will be asked by the Russians to start a provocation cycle to split U.S. attention between two theaters?:

President Moon Jae-in said Tuesday that Ukraine’s sovereignty must be respected and South Korea will join efforts for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

Moon made the remarks during a National Security Council meeting convened after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the deployment of troops to two breakaway regions in Ukraine after recognizing their independence.

“Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected,” he said. “Countries around the world must come together and work for a swift and peaceful resolution to the situation in Ukraine. South Korea will actively participate in these efforts as a responsible member of the international community.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is some more reporting that North Korea ballistic missile technology jump apparently came from Ukraine:

When North Korea launched a series of increasingly potent missiles last year, analysts were left scratching their heads. How had the renegade regime’s weapons program advanced so quickly?

The answer may lie more than 4,000 miles away, in eastern Ukraine, according to one nuclear expert.

Michael Elleman is convinced that North Korea’s recent missiles were powered by engines made at a once-buzzing factory in the former Soviet Union.

Elleman, a senior fellow for missile defense at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think tank, believes that Pyongyang acquired the 1960s Soviet-era missile engine known as the RD-250 within the past two years.

With some slight adjustments, Kim Jong Un’s government used that engine to successfully launch a medium-range missile and two intercontinental ballistic missiles, he says.

In a report published late last year, Elleman suggested that North Korea had procured the high-powered Soviet engines through a network of arms smugglers. He said it was unlikely that the transfer had been sanctioned by the Russian government or even those operating the warehouses and factories.

“These facilities have what we call ‘bone yards’ where you have old engines that are no longer in service that are just stored,” he said. “It’s not surprising that there are dozens that would be available for transfer.”

At about 6.5 feet tall and 3 feet wide, and weighing 800 or 900 pounds, the engines could be boxed and transported like a big motorcycle, Elleman suggested.  [NBC News]

You can read more at the link, but this arguably another unintended consequence of the war and instability allowed to happen in Ukraine.

I think someone is definitely helping the North Koreans with their missile technology, but blaming Ukraine sounds like a Russian information operation:

Ukraine’s top diplomat in Seoul on Thursday denied allegations that North Korea might have obtained rocket engines used in its recently tested long-range missiles from Ukraine.

Charge d’Affaires Taras Fedunkiv, the acting Ukrainian ambassador to Seoul, still suspected that North Korea could not have been able to advance its missile technology “without outside help,” calling for an international probe to find “who was responsible.”

“The production lines for building these types of rockets in Ukraine were decommissioned in 1992. The expertise cannot be carried in the heads of rogue scientists. The instructions are included in complex manuals locked in top-security facilities guarded by our security forces,” he said in a written interview with Yonhap News Agency, citing Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin’s recent op-ed in The New York Times.

“Not only would it be virtually impossible for criminals to access these manuals, but also any effort could not go unnoticed by our government,” he added.

Citing a study by Michael Elleman, a missile expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the New York Times reported on Aug. 14 that North Korea could have got its hands on technology needed for the success of the recent missile launches through black market purchases of rocket engines from Ukraine.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if it was the Russians helping the North Koreans master their long range rocket technology.