For those a bit confused, this is the first time the US military has agreed with Ukrainian and occupied Korean claims that the DPRK has sent troops intended for Ukraine itself and marks an escalation in propaganda rhetoric.
I've archived the source to avoid giving the AP clicks for uncritically carried western propaganda.
US issued meaningless threat that they would be considered combatants and targeted by weapons the west gave them if they fought there alongside Russian troops (duh, very confusing and kinda telling statement).
“Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters. Rutte said the move represents “a significant escalation” in North Korea’s involvement in the conflict and marks “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.”
Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II will pile more pressure on Ukraine’s weary and overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen to reshape global power dynamics. He sought to build a counterbalance to Western influence with a summit of BRICS countries, including the leaders of China and India, in Russia last week. He has sought direct help for the war from Iran, which has supplied drones, and North Korea, which has shipped large amounts of ammunition, according to Western governments.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Rutte’s comments and noted that Pyongyang and Moscow signed a joint security pact last June. He stopped short of confirming North Korean soldiers were in Russia.
The Ukraine regime is now claiming that these troops could be on the battlefield in days. A strange reversal from claims they were already on the battlefield and they'd captured some which happened a week ago. Time must be moving backwards there.
IMO this represents a pretext being invented to give Ukraine an excuse to use long-range weapons for deep strikes into Russia by saying it's fair game for the US to help as the DPRK is helping Russia (as if those two things are equal). In other words a desperate rush to nuclear war.
I'm 90% sure Putin, Lavrov and the DPRK spokesperson who gave more or less the same non-denial denial are just trolling the West, in much the same way as the Russian soldiers who are now waving the DPRK flag to troll the Ukrainians are doing. Still, they're correct, if this was happening it would be totally legitimate and justified. If NATO is allowed to send their "mercenaries" and "advisors" to Ukraine why shouldn't other countries actively help Russia? What's good for the goose...
If this whole story is indeed just a psyop made up by the West (and there is no evidence yet to indicate that it's not), then why bother denying it? Why play defense when any denial from Russia or the DPRK will be spun by the western propagandists as an admission since they assume anything from the Kremlin is a lie anyway, so then you may as well just lean into it, put the West on the defensive to try and justify why this is bad and any different from what they are doing. Put them off balance by turning it around on them.
Personally i maintain that this whole story is a nothing burger regardless which way it turns out. The only thing that matters is what further escalations NATO is going to justify using this story, and they would do that regardless of the actual truth of the situation.
very much agree