South Korean media claimed on Monday that Seoul could send military and intelligence personnel to Ukraine after the North dispatched troops to support Russia in the war.
A report said the government and military of South Korea “are reviewing a plan to send an appropriate number of personnel, including intelligence officers [specialized in North Korea] and experts in enemy tactics,” to Ukraine, citing a South Korean intelligence official.
South Korean personnel in Ukraine would interrogate or provide interpretation services if North Korean soldiers were captured by Ukrainian forces, the report said. They would also provide Kyiv with information about the North’s military tactics, doctrine, and operations.
This has to be the most bizzare proxy war, i have ever heard about.
Two countries with a shared culltural history to go to join a war on the other side of the world, as not to fight in their demilitarized border zone. But unlike in “normal” proxy wars, they both send soldiers.
Unfortunately, all it will take is one of the Korean groups to be responsible for destroying another Korean group in Ukraine for any retaliation to make it’s way back to the homeland.
Hell, the story doesn’t even need to be real for one of the Korean governments to start lobbing shells over their border.
Honestly, I think this is the plan. It was super weird for NK to actually blow up roads on the border. With that, combined with the timing of them sending troops to Ukraine is even more sus. This probably has more to do with US elections, than anything else.
The bridges weren’t in use anyway. Why spend money maintaining infrastructure that could likely only aid your enemy? I don’t think they’re related. NK doesn’t want a war with the south. They’d lose, unless China defends them and then does the US get involved?
The US has a gigantic presence in SK, like huge. There’s probably a dozen bases I’d guess. If China attacks they are 100% ready to respond to that, and already have tons of contingency plans in place, and exercise them regularly.
China WILL defend NK just as they did in the 1950’s. China has no desire to see US influence anywhere near what they consider “their territories” and sphere of influence.
At which point the US WILL get involved and we are off the race to Armageddon. []https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pklr0UD9eSo
NK has a bigger army, and sure to receive support from neighbours. US has logistical issues in providing support. DPRK blowing up bridges does mean not seeking to use them for their own invasion, so on that point, you are right.
The retaliation that north Korea could do was to give up trying to be a country and south Korea is forced to take care of that amount of refugees lol
In 2011 SK started a tax for a reunification fund in the event that they absorb a bunch of NK refugees at some point.
OK, and that would not make things easier, just less catastrophic
I wanted to nitpick on the “other side of the world” part and tell you that NK actually shares a border with Russia. But you’re actually right, Russia is just that massive that its border with Ukraine might as well be on the other side of the earth.
Pyongyang - Kyiv is 7.700 km. So technically it is only about 1/6 around the earth. From a western European perspective the distances to the west are distorted to be shorter and to the east to be longer. In the perception in my country (Germany) Kyiv moved a lot closer in the past 10 years or so.
I was surprised the other day when i looked it up. Berlin Moscow is about 1.600 km. Berlin Madrid is about 1.800 km.
This dumb American is all for moving to the same units as the rest of the world. I would even agree to reordering the way we write dates. But not using a . where a comma belongs is a hill I will die on.
Depends on the conventions used in your country, there’s no real reason for using a comma instead of a dot, or vice versa.
In Italy this is a decimal number: 3,45 and this is a big number: 6’000’870
Every country has its own convention
The second one is fine. And even 3,45 isn’t terrible, unless there are three digits after the comma. Then it is just wrong… in my opinion of course
I’m obviously biased since I grew up with this “9,81” being a decimal, but in my head just thinking about it, it also makes sense. As you can see in these sentences, a comma is a break in a sentence, while a dot ends a sentence. Then again, math gets really messy when you have horizontal vectors with decimal numbers in-between, so maybe the dot is actually better idk. Eg: (2,3 , 4,5 , 3,7)
I didnt think about that. Because of programming stuff i mostly use a decimal dot, but still end up using the . as 1,000 partitioner too.
Hitler could have marched to Madrid. The weather might have been better.
They were involved in the Spanish Civil War before the war. It was similar to Ukraine in that it became a proxy war for nations to test out new equipment and doctrines, although they also sent soldiers who got field experience.
I would think he was always welcome there, given that he helped Franco rise to power
Fucking 48 degrees in summer.
It’s also worth mentioning that the Russian/Korean border is tucked into the farthest corner of China’s border. So any travel from the DPRK to places like Moscow or Ukraine is a pretty long, circuitous route.
I’ve previously said that the conflict is a proxy war between NK and SK, with Russia being NK’s proxy, just to trigger vatniks. I feel vindicated.
When NCD memes turn credible again.
Proxies joining a proxies proxy war lol
US: “Good luck, I’m behind seven proxies!”
After WW2, the US were Japan’s proxies in the “temporary” division of South Korea, and then against the Democratic result that elected a North Korean as leader of all Korea. Colonized ever since.
Mom, can we get a PvP zone?
We got a PvP zone
homein UkrainePvP? No way, this is TvP! SK will just send Flash and Russia will be forced to gg immediately!
TvP?
Terran vs Protoss. Flash (greatest Korean StarCraft player of all time) plays Terran.
I remember there was a tournament where a SK player was so sure/disrespectful he could beat a CN player at SC, that he only used his feet on the keyboard and was eating a banana at the same time. And he still ended up winning lmao
Please South Korea send Ukraine more military support.
WWI-style cascade of breakdown of international relations?
Nah. We actually have camps now, not bilateral agreements which form a chain that can actually cascade.
Here’s hoping.
Meanwhile North Koreans are fleeing the front lines.
None of these guys have ever seen live combat and they all have 2 Kgs of medals.
There’s always joking around when it comes to North Korea. Because of pictures of their parade and officers covered in medals.
But reading about North Korean society is always really fascinating.
For example I remember reading that the military service is about 10 years. Of course children of the Elite are exempt.
Military base are also very autonomous. Meaning that they are farming and fishing.
It’s also very interesting that south Korean is sending troops. Probably to gather intelligence and help with translation or with captured North Korean soldiers.
Also, if you actually read what is enshrined in the North Korean constitution it has some things that sound really cool and hopeful, but obviously impossible to achieve in the face of globalized capitalism.
Yes, it’s obviously capitalism’s fault and not the fault of the corrupt leaders in their fascist, totalitarian state.
You got me wrong, I’m totally happy to see the North Korean leadership, as well as the Russian and Chinese single-party leadership all castrated and skinned alive in front of their families then publicly hung by their ankles, and force their families to watch as those pieces of shit slowly and painfully die.
And then take all the hoarded stolen wealth from all the oligarch families and distribute them to the entire public.
Fuck tankies and fascists.
Nothing in your post indicates that my criticism of your point was wrong.
That’s because it wasn’t wrong.
So what made you think I got you wrong…if you think I was right? This is making less sense as we go.
Well I’m not sure we should be wishing that for anybody, but point taken.
Wishing they had 2kg of rice.
Medals can be recycled to new soldiers. Rice is one meal and done…
idk, Republicans found a way to eat their own shit and survive. or was it Russian shit?
2kg of medals is not that very many, depending on the thickness and material.
North Korean soldiers are so strong they always carry about 50kg of medals on their chest in order to give enemies a fair chance in hand to hand combat, not to mention being a much manlier bullet deflector than kevlar.
Then there is the layers… you get shot but the medal deflects it, so the medal gets a medal and the cycle continues.
https://understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-october-21-2024
Russia appears to be scrambling to reduce tensions with South Korea following credible reports of intensified North Korean cooperation with Russia, including South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence warnings that a contingent of North Korean troops has deployed for training to Russia. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry summoned Russia’s Ambassador to South Korea, Georgy Zinoviev, over reports of the deployment of North Korean military personnel to Russia.[12] The Russian Embassy in South Korea falsely framed the event as a voluntary meeting, as opposed to a diplomatic summons, and notably claimed that any cooperation between Russia and North Korea “is not directed against the security interests” of Seoul.[13] Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed that Russia-North Korea cooperation “should not cause concern” to other states, and that information about the alleged presence of North Korean troops in Russia may be “contradictory.”[14] The Kremlin’s apparent desire to assure South Korea that its cooperation with North Korea is not a threat to Seoul suggests that the Kremlin remains very concerned about the prospect of Seoul’s potential pivot towards providing Ukraine with necessary military support, and the implications of worsened relations with Seoul for Russian security interests in the Asia Pacific region. Russia has previously attempted to court Seoul in order to mitigate the impacts of its growing reliance on North Korea, as ISW has noted.[15]
Well, if ISW is correct about the Kremlin aiming to reduce tensions, it doesn’t sound like tensions are being reduced a whole lot.
Scrambling,??? Like they just accidentally found themselves aiding on their front lines? Journalism is dead.
Apparently they wanted cheap soldiers but wasn’t expecting South Korea help Ukrainians in bombing them, or they are trying to convince South Korea not to help Ukraine idk
Seems credible that there is no threat to ROK. OP is suggesting a tiny role for ROK being discussed anyway.
I can’t wait until the Chinese start sending troops.
Thisiswherethefunbegins.webm
starting to look like ukraine is everyones sandbox test area for war tech
This is a good thing. In practice I imagine the Ukrainians and South Koreans will speak English to each other, which is fine, but sometimes you wonder how much is lost in translation.
Dystopian.
I guarantee NATO has “unofficial” personnel deep in Ukraine. For the Special Forces units, this is the true test to face off against Spetsnaz.
Not really, there was but they all left after the invasion started. Any training happens in NATO soil now. And i dont think any SFs would want to be caught dead (literally) operating in the front lines.
it’s unfathomably stupid to think NATO would risk an international war just to beat some Russian ass.
if NATO wanted in the war, NATO would have won the war 10 months ago.
No, I think they should make price controls on goods and raise the minimum to $30 per hour
Newsweek - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)
Information for Newsweek:
MBFC: Right-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: Mostly Factual - United States of America
Wikipedia about this sourceSearch topics on Ground.News
https://www.newsweek.com/south-korea-news-could-follow-north-russia-ukraine-war-1972082
Very weird choice. They don’t have to do this at all.
And Ukraine doesn’t need their intelligence officers either. Because it’s not like NK has some sort of capable force.
It’s still a very good idea for any country to keep close tabs on an adversary. Complacency never benefits anybody. And the South Koreans will be better at translating, especially when it comes to any slang, regional dialects, etc.
You don’t think South Korea has far more expertise when it comes to North Korea than Ukraine?
What would this expertise look like?
It’s right in the article, near the top. You don’t even need to scroll. They know far more about their language, tactics (presumably including equipment), attitude, and methods of operating than probably anyone in Ukraine.
South Korean personnel in Ukraine would interrogate or provide interpretation services if North Korean soldiers were captured by Ukrainian forces, the report said. They would also provide Kyiv with information about the North’s military tactics, doctrine, and operations.
Yes but all of that is useless. What are those tactics, doctrine and operations? In the end there is no real difference between soldiers.
Interpretation services might be the only good thing, but even that doesn’t require actual soldiers to be sent. Little translated phrase books, mobile apps, a few translators deeper in their own territory, etc. All of that makes it so South Korea doesn’t have to meddle. It’s like if the US would go to war with Canada and France joins in because they could help translate the french that is spoken in some parts of Canada.
So my point still stands, South Korea doesn’t really help the military with anything but the manpower itself. And this just means South Korea is there to fight North Korea. Which I still think is a questionable move for them.
You don’t seriously think that a phrase book is a practical alternative to a native speaker.
Did I say that?
I provided a list of alternatives showing that it’s not too important to have a lot of translators.
Why would I answer your question when you ignored mine?
Do you think you’re cool?
Nope, but I know I have faith in my position, which you obviously don’t have.
I’m not the one being an asshole to other people online though.
I’m not the one being an asshole
Lol
