Further reports say that it’s believed they’re being sent to Ukraine. Okay, I’ll believe it when I see it, but I have a feeling that if this is true, the Russian military has been so depleted, they’re having to import soldiers from other countries - so why not North Korea? They’ve had a lifetime of not even knowing that they can question authority! Yeah, let’s bring them on.
I think some NK soldiers have already defected once they got to Russia. As far as I know, the NK army doesn’t really have a lot of combat experience. I expect they’re going to get chewed up in Ukraine if they actually fight.
By sending a number of men, even “just” a few thousand or tens of thousands, North Korea might also alleviate its food burden. I would imagine that even feeding North Korea’s army may be a strain on its food supply, and so if Pyongyang can send some men to fight and die for Russia while getting some aid and food in return, it would be favorable for the regime.
Last I heard, the eighteen North Korean soldier who deserted their posts in Russia have been apprehended by the Russian authorities.
They will by this time next year, which is something the South Korean military should be worried about.
The families North Korean soldiers sent abroad are being sequestered by the regime; that should cut down on defections.
Aren’t they all sequestered? Meaning the entire country.
The NK solders might get some food. Might.
Doesn’t this make North Korea a co-belligerent in this war, no less than if Belarus sent troops across the common border with Ukraine?
In the diplomatic processes surrounding warfare, these things matter.
Given the massive advantage in conventional warfare that the South has over the North, I doubt military experience would particularly make a difference in a Korean war either way.
They should have waited.
Supposedly, Ukraine is going to offer a deal to any North Korean soldiers who surrender once they are on the front line:
- they will be reported as killed-in-action by Ukraine and dog tags sent back.
- they will be given South Korea immigration papers (which Ukraine is getting from South Korea). With false names.
- they will be transported to South Korea.
That might prove attractive to many North Korean conscripts fighting in a foreign land.
I’m thinking these boys were given one-way tickets
Those soldiers must have been people who had no known families, because the North Korean government is NOT kind of to relatives of defectors or dissidents.
And apparently, the Russian soldiers aren’t terribly thrilled about the North Koreans being there:
I read the reason they abandoned their posts was they simply were not provided any food.
Wow. Just. Wow.
None of these men will ever be allowed to come home. If they did, they’d be able to tell others that conditions in the rest of the world aren’t as abysmal as they are in North Korea, which is something that the North Korean leadership absolutely won’t allow.
What “rest of the world”? They are going to a war zone or, at best, wartime Russia.
I watched a documentary that took a hard look at NK’s finances.
One of the things I remember vividly is that NK sent a great number of its citizens to any number of other countries to work – in whatever their normal field was, from laborer to physician – and basically confiscated nearly all of their wages to – y’know – fuel the machine.
I wonder if that’s at the heart of this.
One quick source:
Basically, a North Korean version of Labor Ready (roughly: 노동 준비 완료)
Both of which are still better than North Korea.
South Korea clears it’s throat…
SK is worried NK will be rewarded not with food aid from Russia, but advanced technology to fortify it’s nuclear weapon program.