Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Saturday that he couldn’t confirm reports about North Korean troops being sent to Russia to prepare for fighting in Ukraine, a narrative being pushed hard by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he’s looking for more support from the West.
“I’ve seen those reports in the media. I can’t confirm those reports at this point in time. This is something that we will certainly continue to investigate,” Austin said.
A day earlier, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the alliance had no evidence that North Korean troops were already fighting on the ground in Ukraine. “At this moment, our official position is that we cannot confirm reports that North Koreans are actively now as soldiers engaged in the war effort,” he said.
South Korea’s spy agency claimed in a statement on Friday that North Korea sent 1,500 special operations soldiers to eastern Russia to support the war in Ukraine. Seoul cited satellite images that purported to show a Russian ship moving North Korean soldiers and other images that showed troop formations inside eastern Russia.
The South Korean statement was followed by a video published by Ukraine that purported to show North Korean troops receiving Russian military equipment at a training camp in Russia’s eastern Primorye region, which shares a small border with North Korea.
But the video released by Ukraine has not been independently verified, and even if it showed what the Ukrainians claimed, it would not be evidence that the North Korean soldiers were preparing to fight for Russia.
Zelensky has claimed without evidence that North Korea is preparing to deploy 10,000 troops to join the Russian war effort, a deployment he said would be “the first step to a World War.” In his nightly address on Sunday, Zelensky said he expected Ukraine’s Western backers to have a “strong” response to his claims about North Korean troops.
“Now we have clear evidence that people are being supplied to Russia from North Korea, and these are not just workers for industries, but also military personnel. And we expect a normal, honest, strong reaction from our partners to this. In fact, this is another state joining the war against Ukraine,” Zelensky said.
So what? Ukraine needs to just accept the new borders before it loses even more territory.
It has been confirmed that North Korea has sent over 10,000 soldiers to Russia and Western intelligence believes they will begin participating in combat operations in Ukraine by Nov 1st. By allowing these North Korean men to leave the Hermit Kingdom, Kim Jong Un has sentenced them all to death and none of them will ever be allowed to return to their home country.
"Confirmed" by who? Alex Jones? Bat Boy? Or just the voices in your head?
It has not been confirmed. It's a typical false claim and the so-called Koreans being outfitted with gear, were not north Koreans, but were Laotians who have annual mil exercises with Russia. That's why the so-called "proof" was, of course, lacking in audio volume, because it would have raised this question: "Why are those North Koreans speaking Lao?
It's almost certainly just the last Ukro-Nazi fake news to try and beg some money before the macabre show is over. Right now Russia is winning battle after battle, advancing at a very steady pace in all active fronts and doesn't seem to need any particular help.
Numbers help, especially if holding territory.
Russia is on the offensive. Surely those Korean troops could help but it'd be controversial and maybe demoralizing. I'll believe it only when I see it (Russia is transparent enough, it can't be held secret).
NK just denied any reality to this intoxication (RT, which for some reason I can still access from my location).
I guess it’s false then. I just thought it sounded true. I wouldn’t care, personally.
Not just NK, also Peskov (Russia) denied the claim, which was originally made by (ahem!) the most credible source of news on Earth after Netanyahu: Volodimir Zelensky the Great Clown himself!
Why does it matter so? SK is considering sending ammunition. Japan, Europe, the US: many have aided Ukraine.
If Russia gets support from another, so what? Individuals are fighting as mercenaries for Ukraine and likely Russia also.
I’m not saying it matters, I’m saying it’s fake news, Maidan Ukraine’s nonsense propaganda. We should be warned and understand what’s really happening, which is not what the Western unfree media says almost ever.
Apparently, Twitter is to be ruined. Maybe Musk will flee to Russia along with the Telegram guy.
Musk for all his shortcomings has become the greatest tech CEO of our time. He is now legit even if it took him awhile.
I don’t have an account in Twitter so I don’t know enough but people reporting in YT seem to feel safe from undeserved censorship in that platform, as well as in Telegram, Rumble, maybe Odysee, definitely not Facebook (where I myself deleted my account as it was impossible to share any info of interest anymore).
Unrelated, it is frightening how Little Brother shares information online nowadays via the social media you mention. Many don’t understand this yet, but we potentially have no privacy at all.
I’m surprised Puff Daddy was able to have dirty parties without being found out sooner. It’s such that one can’t have conversations almost anywhere without the risk of being recorded. Similarly, you can’t do anything without such risk.
I just think that’s important to highlight. I don’t use social media, but I figure out some of what’s up there, before some of it’s taken down.
I’m like you in that I share or argue topics of interest. I almost never gossip, try to stop myself when I do.
I’m concerned about not being able to share info rather, about being arbitrarily gagged all the time, and not just me but my sources of info as well.
Not sure who “little brother” and “puff daddy” may be.
Puff Daddy is an American rapper. He was caught raping kids at wild parties full of other people.
Little Brother is a reference to George Orwell’s 1984 book which uses the term Big Brother to refer to state monitoring of people. With social media, little people can monitor others by sharing information, Little Brother. It is a huge change, very significant.
“Puff Daddy is an American rapper. He was caught raping kids at wild parties full of other people.”
He’s accused of sex trafficking. While I don’t follow news about him closely, I have yet to notice anything about him being “caught” at what he’s accused of.
TY for the explanations. Honestly, I’m less concerned about being monitored by random people, it’s as easy as using a nickname instead of your real name, not sharing private info and/or keeping your profile reasonably sanitized. I eventually ended bein so uninterested on what your “little brothers” may think or monitor that in some platforms I go by my real name even (I wouldn’t recommend but I just couldn’t care anymore), however in wide range platforms like Disqus, I eventually decided to keep my profile under lock bc different not too compatible interests and some people peeking at my other interests and harassing me afterwards.
Big Brother is a much bigger concern however.
Little Brother monitors when you go to a restaurant, for example. It won’t notice every visit, but it will notice some. It monitors your conversations. Some will be recorded and uploaded; it’s the big thing. It will record videos of you or pictures if you do something noteworthy. It’s more frequent, or can be, than you’d expect, until you experience it.
I don’t generally share that kind of private activities online, not in public spaces at least, why would I? I’m interested in serious stuff like Prehistory or modern geopolitics. That’s a problem only “selfiers” have, probably they’re too narcissistic, so anyhow they won’t care because they like to be watched and talked about, even if negatively. In any case it’s a “problem” we already had long before the Internet, when gossip was more local and you could not anyhow leave the home without being observed by your neighbors (which sometimes resulted in murderous witch hunts, mind you). Now the village plaza is global so whatever… one has to be brave in the face of an always complicated social reality, what else?
Anyway, we’re getting very off topic.
I apologise if I bothered you.
I’ve noticed important people often refuse commenting on anything controversial. And for me it’s difficult to have a private conversation anywhere.
And stupid people don’t notice how others will hold opinions that mayn’t be expressed.
It is off topic. I just see it as something I didn’t fully appreciate until last year, and most others don’t appreciate.
I do feel free to express myself here, however.
I’m of the opinion that, barring fascist danger of imprisonment or worse, opinions should be openly defended (within reason) and that not doing so is cowardice and duplicity, a sign of moral weakness at best.
I guess it depends on your occupation. If you’re a plumber, you may defend your opinions.
Alternatively, an uneducated or incurious person may speak as he pleases if never questioning taboos.
You know what you can’t do when you’re a plumber? Being a woman, I dated one such female plumber once and she was totally pissed off at household patrirchal roles and how they ruined her promising career as freelance plumber. Also bad for gardeners, electricians, etc.
Having honest opinions don’t depend on occupation anyhow, it depends on honesty and bravery. If you need to hide your profile for career reasons, just use a nickname for the sake of the holy shine of the nuclear (fussion) Sun God, please!
It’s not so much online posts as conversations one has with other people. Talking is risky.
If you believe so, then… stay silent. I think that living is risky and that we have to take some risks, after all we will all die sooner than later and then you can’t lose anything else.
People will debate over you, whether this or that is true about you. They won’t let you respond. So, misunderstandings arise. It’s quite annoying. You just learn to ignore it. But it’s the new thing.
One interesting thing about Little Brother is people forget quickly too. No one wants a lengthy explanation, an in depth understanding. You figure all this out when people talk about you. It’s decentralised, different groups.
Even if true, it seems unlikely to have any great effect on the battlefield. In Ukraine, anyway.
"Normal" and "honest" have had absolutely nothing to do with the Ukrainian conflict since the beginning.
Well, you know. You can't really blame the Ukrainians. They have been suckered into being used as a proxy. They were promised what the West couldn't deliver and so now they are desperate to drag the West into the war as they see it the only way to avert the inevitable.
It's like they really don't understand the concept of proxy. The West isn't and never was going to be directly involved, that is not part of the plan.
So now it is a matter of trying to let this war drag on until after the elections and then if they can the transition period too.
And so you will see Zelensky getting more and more desperate and do more and more desperate things and do what cornered animals do. They are at their most dangerous, right before being eaten.
He’s not really at risk of being eaten. He’ll just… move away, with lots of cash.
Maybe he cares somewhat, but I doubt it.
I mean I don't contest Ukrainians seem to be painfully obtuse, but it seems inevitable that eventually they are going to find out. And they might not be amused. They might spike his cocaine.
He could leave and abdicate.
There are none.
True.
Lies
"Sharp as a bowling ball".
Last summer Russia and North Korea signed a strategic partnership agreement which among other things includes the obligation for mutual military help in case of war.
At the moment Russia is not in state of war. So, North Korea has no obligation to send troops to Russia. However, nothing can prevent North Korea to allow Korean citizens participate in Ukrainian war as volunteers. NATO countries are doing this from spring 2022.
If Putin decides to take entire Ukraine, he will need at least a half million more soldiers just for controlling the hostile territory of western Ukraine. North Korea would be glad to help because the experience in modern warfare is precious. So, we shouldn't exclude such a possibility.
“I’ve seen those reports in the media. I can’t confirm those reports at this point in time. This is something that we will certainly continue to investigate,” Austin said.
You would think if it were true that Austin wouldn't have found out about it by reading it in the media.
How is it not already a world war with every NATO country involved, including mercenaries from countries like France?
Applying same standards? Is that still legal?
All the video shows is some Asian-looking soldiers somewhere, at some time, receiving green uniforms. If they are even in Russia they could be part of the various Asiatic peoples in Siberia.
And all the Biden-loyal leftist media then report that "North Koreans are going to fight in Ukraine!"
The leftists love to scream "fake news!" and later "disinformation-and-misinformation!" at any opinion they don't like. What about this disinformation? I.e. what about this lie? Almost as bad as their "Trump is a Russian agent" and "a Russian-made missile landed in Poland."
Russia has hundreds of thousands of soldiers involved in the defense of Donbass. They have more volunteers every day than they can train and equip. Why would they include 10,000 North Koreans? Which would be a diplomatic disaster? And who don't even speak Russian?
Oct 10: North Koreans deployed alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, sources say
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/10/north-korea-engineers-deployed-russia-ukraine
IF there are North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine, it’s more likely that Kim Jong Un asked Putin to let his guys get some combat experience than that Putin wanted warm bodies from allies.
Seoul summons Russian envoy, calls for 'immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops'
https://kyivindependent.com/seoul-summons-russian-envoy-over-north-korean-troops-deployment/
I guess Seoul wants them back in North Korea where they are also reported to be preparing to invade South Korea. Great strategy!
They’re in Ukraine as a warm-up to their invasion of South Korea. They need some combat experience.
Sure and Ukraine is now hiring sherpas, Timbuktuians, and Katmanduains to fight for them.
Quoting the poorest most corrupt country in Europe's propaganda paper is laughable.
Can’t easily find your source. You should always give your source. If you don’t, it is your own comment that is laughable, not mine.
My sources are posted for all to see.
Ritter? The child molester? LOL
"The ad hominem fallacy is a rhetorical strategy that involves attacking the person making an argument instead of the argument itself."
Ritter is in the tank for Putin. You might as well quote Steven Seagal.
Another display of the ad hominem fallacy.
oooo… Latin. You must be right.
I am.
No, besides being a pedophile, Ritter has a history of parroting Russain propaganda. It’s perfectly logical to disregard anything he says in support of Russia. Your Latin BS notwithstanding.
Engage the argument. Attacking the man is a confession that you can’t refute the argument.
When it comes to confessions, Mr. Ritter has in fact publicly confessed to a pro-Russian bias vis a vis Ukraine.
Which does not mean any argument he makes should be dismissed out of hand. But it’s reason to be more careful and skeptical.
Bias? Truth is relative?
South Korea wants North Korean soldiers not to return from Ukraine – Defense Express
"South Korea is also interested in making sure that those who gain combat experience don’t return."
https://global.espreso.tv/russia-ukraine-war-south-korea-is-interested-in-ensuring-north-korean-soldiers-dont-return-after-combat-in-ukraine-defense-express
Newsweek: South Korea Could Follow North Into Russia-Ukraine War
https://www.newsweek.com/south-korea-news-could-follow-north-russia-ukraine-war-1972082
https://sputnikglobe.com/20241021/pepe-escobar-date-with-destiny—brics-offer-hope-in-a-time-of-war-1120617552.html
North Korean troops may be engineers, but they are not needed.
Baba Yaga is coming for each and every one of the Ukrainians who choose to fight Russia.
"Choosing Russia as your enemy is a stupidity at PhD level"
Great job Russia keep up the great work, Sweden under Charles XII of Sweden, France under Napoleon, Germany under Hitler, and now NATO under Joey Biden / obama getting their collective assets kicked under the bus.
Oh, I forgot and the midget Voldemort Zelensky also!
"The ODAB-9000 (44 Tons of TNT) Catastrophe in Vovchansk – Ukraine's Worst Nightmare!"
The end is near BOHICA!
Is that the same Larry Johnson who tried to put over the “Michelle Obama called caucasians ‘whitey’ at Jeremiah Wright’s church” hoax? Or some other Larry Johnson?
Don’t know so I put in a better reference which is more on topic and less far afield.
Only learned of him recently.
I went down the rabbit hole. So he was a Clinton campaign huckster?
No – that's the Larry Johnson who is anti-war as it relates to the US sticking their military nose in hotspots all over the world.
BTW, you actually used the racist word, instead of referring to it as the W word.
More evidence of N Koreans in Ukraine. https://youtu.be/AhUEr9eaN7s?t=1195
Russia will “generously pay” North Korea for participation in the war with nuclear technology, – Seoul’s representative to the UN
https://ukrainetoday.org/russia-will-generously-pay-north-korea-for-participation-in-the-war-with-nuclear-technology-seouls-representative-to-the-un/
Russia’s request to involve North Korean troops in the war against Ukraine shows that its army is in a precarious state. Now Western countries must do everything to ensure Ukraine’s victory.
https://ukrainetoday.org/putin-is-in-trouble-its-time-to-strike-a-decisive-blow-colonel/
So you fell for the Kiev Regime's propaganda piece too?
Non sequitur.
Even taking as a given that there was such a “request,” there are other possible reasons other than the Russian army being in “a precarious state” which would explain the “request.”
One possible alternative reason is, quite simply, to demonstrate to the world that despite western attempts to isolate it, Russia is not isolated, that it has friends and allies.
And even assuming a “precarious state,” the hypothetical precariousness is highly unlikely to be a matter of insufficient infantry manpower.
On the other hand, there’s probably nothing North Korea could offer that would redeem the Russian forces’ prospects after nearly three years of abject failure.
Another desperate ploy by the installed Kiev Regime to sate the warmongering appetite of the Western interlopers.
Untested North Korean Pilots Could Fly Russian Warplanes in Ukraine
"A government official in South Korea claimed that North Korea last month dispatched fighter pilots to Vladivostok, a city in the Russian Far East, ahead of the first deployment of its ground troops on October 8, South Korean media TV Chosun reported."
https://www.newsweek.com/north-korea-news-pilots-could-fly-russian-warplanes-ukraine-report-1972650
Fighter pilots (and manned fixed-wing combat aircraft) are obsolete. That’s been one of the many big reveals of this war.
Tomorrow the first military from the DPRK will be in the Kursk region, – Budanov
https://ukrainetoday.org/tomorrow-the-first-military-from-the-dprk-will-be-in-the-kursk-region-budanov/
North Koreans in Ukraine – 8 Officers Killed in Action, Says Chinese Merc
https://ukrainetoday.org/north-koreans-in-ukraine-8-officers-killed-in-action-says-chinese-merc/