Not a single one of those support troops has any combat experience.
So good luck, guys.
North Korea has had surprisingly close ties with various African states going back to the Cold War and NK mercenaries have served in Syria, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zanzibar, and South Africa in the relatively recent past.
NKers also have an active role in state-sanctioned smuggling and piracy. I think you’d be surprised how much combat experience they’ve accrued.
And they’ll still be the most experienced combat troops Putin can field. At least they get lots of practice marching up and down the square.
What a perfect time to act.
I’m sure that will be really helpful, I bet they’re really well trained and have lots of modern equipment that isn’t just painted wood.
In response to that Pyongyang announced early this week that it will be sending troops in the form of a military engineering unit to support Russian forces on the ground in the Donetsk region. The troops are expected to arrive on the battlefield as soon as next month.
One engineering unit isn’t much, but perhaps there is more to come. It didn’t say anything in the article about future commitments.
Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian member of parliament told the UK’s Daily Express that North Korea has become an important bridge between the Kremlin and China. Beijing can indirectly transfer military equipment to Moscow through Pyongyang without falling foul of Western sanctions.
As he explained: “North Korea is one of key Russian partners and the meaning of the rationale behind them becoming such a partner is because they are acting as a bridge between China and Russia.
“Essentially all the military equipment that is delivered from North Korea was developed for the North Koreans by the Chinese.
Perhaps this is less about North Korea then it appears on the surface. I wonder what Russia is giving China for this help?
Time to translate those surrender instruction leaflets to Korean. Maybe go ahead and plan to build a large camp for malnourished people.
Can the average north Korean read though?
Maybe that’s the tactic, force Ukraine to divert food and resources to feeding thousands of Korean deserters.
Ukrain is a country of 40 million people, with millions already internally displaced from the war. A few thousand extra refugees wouldnt even be noticed.
Maybe go ahead and plan to build a large camp for malnourished people.
Or just invite the South Korean government to send agents to Ukraine to invite them all to South Korea.
Pyongangbang
Ain’t this a good thing the more fudder sent to the front lines the high chance NK will have less capable soldiers in their country. Unless people being sent to front lines were potential issues in NK. I bet US intelligence would be interested on seeing how NK soldiers operates in actual combat.
Sometime back kim was crying so that women make more babies, now he is sending men to his friend. And we know the mortality rate of North Korea. I have never seen a country run out of people, I think I will see it soon
Does north korea have actually good military power? I’ve seen their parades here and there, but does anyone know if they have updated equipment, trained military personnel, good intelligence, etc?
Military is the only thing they have. It might not be the most modern, but they have more artilery shells than any other country. Other stockpiles are huge AF as well. Almost 4% of their population are in active military service and 2% more are reservists. In terms of head count, they have almost as many active personel as Russia while having a fraction of population. Plenty of disposable meat!
Agreed that they have a pretty big military in terms of raw numbers. I’m not going to discuss quality because the biggest question mark here is force projection.
How are they planning on sending over any significant manpower and supplies across 2800km?
They don’t even have a navy capable of circumnavigating the korean peninsula, much less make the trip to Ukraine or the wrong side of Russia.
They have 2 transport aircraft, the bigger of the 2 has a max passenger capacity of 44 pax. Neither of those have the range to get near Ukraine when flying fully fueled, nevermind if it were fully loaded.
How are they planning on sending over any significant manpower and supplies across 2800km?
Rail? They border Russia and there’s a railroad over the border
I didn’t know this, damn, that’s moving a lot of troops across ~8.000 km
Kim Jong Un has a pretty cool train also to use the rail
There is rail and I’m pretty sure Russia still has plenty of cargo/transport planes that would be capable.
It’s all smoke and mirrors, the majority of their stockpiles would be bordering on defunct. Modern equipment they have is far and few between, their training is subpar.
Plenty of disposable meat is certainly correct though!
You may be right. We just saw how Russia performed in the war in Ukraine despite the prior years of flexing lol. It’s not impossible to believe that the North Korean military is the same.
They have massive amount of soldiers and are good and making artillery and missiles. It is a big black box however since they haven’t been engaged in a conflict recently so all their troops lack experience.
Their economy is practically built for conflict so it shouldn’t be taken lightly.
It is a big black box however since they haven’t been engaged in a conflict recently so all their troops lack experience.
They’ve been deployed to Syria since at least 2019 and assisted Hezbollah in its tunnel networks going back decades.
Yeah, I don’t think numbers is everything, lacking experience or leadership can tip the balance against you in a blink
Yeah, I have a feeling that they will have very low morale because of lack of motivating factors. Desertion might also become a massive problem since this is one of the few ways to get out of the DPRK.
Few will desert as their families back home will pay the price for that.
True, but we’ve already seen from Russia what sheer numbers can do, even under-equipped and untrained.
can we get 1 like for the brave soldiers
These guys will have a better time in Ukrainian captivity than 99% of the population at home…
Maybe even food and medication against tap worms? I’m in!
So does that mean that NATO can also start deploying troops there? I mean, so far we’ve kept out to not escalate this, but if actual foreign troops will set foot on that front line, you can only wait so long for the other side to do the same…
No, because Ukraine is not a NATO member because they cannot join while already at war. If the USA got involved directly then the international community in the UN and even NATO itself would have mixed responses, perhaps even leading to NATO withdrawals and economic sanctions.
However, the USA have started allowing private mercenary companies to participate directly in the conflict, and they’ve had indirect support specialists from the US Military in the region for a long time.
They can meet up with the Cameroonian and Iraqi olympic teams for lunch.
Every picture of Putin and Kim together just looks like an adult tricking a kid.
A free trip for defection for North Koreans!
