Russia forming North Korean battalion amid soldier shortage

[2tallbill]

Is this real news?

Russia forming North Korean battalion amid soldier shortage: report
Russia is forming a special battalion consisting of up to 3,000 North Koreans
to help push Ukraine’s forces out of Kursk amid a manpower shortage on
the front lines due to heavy casualties, Ukraine’s media reported.

https://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/russia-north-korean-battalion-10162024002318.html

[2tallbill]

North Koreans deployed alongside Russian troops in Ukraine
Engineers said to be supporting missile launches and reports of
North Koreans killed near Donetsk

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/10/north-korea-engineers-deployed-russia-ukraine

[rosco]

Stranger things have happened but I cant see, at this stage at least, NK soldiers fighting in Ukraine under the NK flag.

Ukraine's ranks are clearly bolstered by an international legion of merc's (volunteers) but they are wearing Ukrainian uniforms. It's clear to everyone but those lines have been fudged. I could see NK troops training and being posted inside Russia at defensive locations which would free up Russian man power, to be deployed on the front, if they needed. A more likely scenario.

[Manny]

The article suggests very low numbers of engineers, which would be enough to oversee their own missiles, you'd think. But as noted, a bit of real-world training isn't out of the question.

I did read last night that NK and Russia are agreeing to a mutual defence pact, which would be logical.

It's all "Kiev says" and "South Korea says" stuff though, so must be taken with a pinch of salt. That and the sources suggest it might well be fake news.

[2tallbill]

Stranger things have happened but I cant see, at this stage at least, NK soldiers fighting in Ukraine under the NK flag.

I can't see NK missile engineers coming to Russia to oversea NK missiles
UNLESS the Russians are training the NK engineers. Otherwise it
would be like my Mom to teach them how to cook borscht (Mom has
never ate it much less made it).

[andrewfi]

There's a whole lot of 'Koreans' living in Russia. Some of them will be in the armed forces of the RF. There's about half a million scattered across the RF and neighbouring 'Stans. At some point, one bloke looking like he might be Korean will be killed.

I can't see North Koreans being part of the RUAF - how would they be integrated with different training, different culture, and most importantly, different language?

The RUAF is at about its limit for onboarding and training volunteers from within the RF, I doubt they need the extra burden of integrating a load of blokes with nothing in common with the rest of their forces.

[rosco]

There's a whole lot of 'Koreans' living in Russia. Some of them will be in the armed forces of the RF. There's about half a million scattered across the RF and neighbouring 'Stans. At some point, one bloke looking like he might be Korean will be killed.

I can't see North Koreans being part of the RUAF - how would they be integrated with different training, different culture, and most importantly, different language?

The RUAF is at about its limit for onboarding and training volunteers from within the RF, I doubt they need the extra burden of integrating a load of blokes with nothing in common with the rest of their forces.

Unless of course with a defensive alliance signed between the two countries, NK want to assist Russia in Kursk, attend combat training and get some first hand action under their belts.

A fighting army is a learning army. But all this rubbish about them being deployed in Ukraine is yet again, more made up western propaganda and fantasy.

[Manny]

Felix Abt, a former North Korean resident and author of books on NK, has written about this on his Substack: https://felixabt.substack.com/p/north-korean-soldiers-at-war-against

[Bodine]

There's a whole lot of 'Koreans' living in Russia. Some of them will be in the armed forces of the RF. There's about half a million scattered across the RF and neighbouring 'Stans. At some point, one bloke looking like he might be Korean will be killed.

I can't see North Koreans being part of the RUAF - how would they be integrated with different training, different culture, and most importantly, different language?

The RUAF is at about its limit for onboarding and training volunteers from within the RF, I doubt they need the extra burden of integrating a load of blokes with nothing in common with the rest of their forces.

Unless of course with a defensive alliance signed between the two countries, NK want to assist Russia in Kursk, attend combat training and get some first hand action under their belts.

A fighting army is a learning army. But all this rubbish about them being deployed in Ukraine is yet again, more made up western propaganda and fantasy.

Wouldn't this be what a Mutual Defence Treaty is for? No different than what article 5 is with NATO.

[2tallbill]

From TASS
NATO cannot confirm reports about DPRK troops’ involvement in special op
https://tass.com/world/1857133



US State Department says 10,000 North Korean soldiers deployed
to Russia’s Kursk Region
https://tass.com/world/1866967

[Contrarian]

There's a whole lot of 'Koreans' living in Russia. Some of them will be in the armed forces of the RF. There's about half a million scattered across the RF and neighbouring 'Stans. At some point, one bloke looking like he might be Korean will be killed.

I can't see North Koreans being part of the RUAF - how would they be integrated with different training, different culture, and most importantly, different language?

The RUAF is at about its limit for onboarding and training volunteers from within the RF, I doubt they need the extra burden of integrating a load of blokes with nothing in common with the rest of their forces.

Unless of course with a defensive alliance signed between the two countries, NK want to assist Russia in Kursk, attend combat training and get some first hand action under their belts.

A fighting army is a learning army. But all this rubbish about them being deployed in Ukraine is yet again, more made up western propaganda and fantasy.

Wouldn't this be what a Mutual Defence Treaty is for? No different than what article 5 is with NATO.

Seems to me, if they are in Kursk which is Russia proper, they are responding to a Mutual Defense Treaty.

Ukraine has no Mutual Defense Treaty, and yet the estimates, which are likely highly accurate, are that about 13,000 Western mercenaries from the US and elsewhere, have been fighting on Ukrainian soil.

[2tallbill]

I am posting this story, if I had an accompanying opinion, I would post it
here like I usually do.

Why North Korean troops are proving a nightmare for Russia
After two years of intense courtship, progressing from warm words to vital weapons, summits in Pyongyang to 11,000 soldiers on the ground in
Russia, the burgeoning relationship between Vladimir Putin and Kim
Jong-un was signed in blood this week when the first stories emerged
of North Korean casualties on the Ukrainian battlefield.

On Monday, the GUR, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, claimed
that 30 North Koreans had been killed or wounded in fighting around
the villages of Plekhovo, Vorobzha and Martynovka in the Kursk region
– a figure echoed by a spokesman for the US National Security Council.

On Thursday, Lee Sung-kwon, a South Korean MP who had been briefed
by his country’s intelligence services, claimed that at least 100 North
Korean soldiers had been killed in total, with a further 1,000 injured

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/12/20/why-north-korean-troops-are-proving-a-nightmare-for-russia/



Falling Back Under North Korean Assault, A Ukrainian Brigade Turned
A River Into A Natural Barrier
Russian and North Korean troops are struggling to cross the Psel River
in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.

When the North Korean 11th Army Corps finally marched into battle
along the edges of a 250-square-mile salient Ukrainian troops hold in
western Russia’s Kursk Oblast last weekend, the long lines of North
Korean infantry—striding across open fields in broad daylight—ran
headlong into a wall of Ukrainian firepower.




Read more here
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2024/12/19/falling-back-under-north-korean-assault-a-ukrainian-brigade-turned-a-river-into-a-natural-barrier/