2024 Readings and North Koreans in Russia Again

 

So, here is a link to my 2024 book depository.  It appears that Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad was the last book I completed in 2024.

The other day I found an article at AntiWar.Com from Joseph D. Terwilliger about the subject of North Korean troops in Russia.  It's mostly about the mutual assistance agreement that the DPRK signed with the RF.  But it also deals with the alleged presence of tens of thousands of North Korean troops dying in swathes as their murderous masters order them into "human wave" attacks against the stalwart lines of Ukrainian defenders.  Putin is reduced to using North Korean slaves as his own "human wave" assaults with Russian cannon-fodder has meant he is running out of men. [Or so goes the shit-for-brains narrative of stupid and/or shameless NATO propagandists.]

Allegations of DPRK troop deployments to Russia have dominated Western headlines, though neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has confirmed them, and much of the evidence was clearly fabricated. The Pentagon claims that several thousand DPRK troops likely traveled to Russia earlier this year, ostensibly for “training exercises,” and are now stationed in rear echelons behind the front lines in the Kursk region in response to a Ukrainian invasion that was launched in August 2024. Even if DPRK troops are confined to logistical and support roles, their presence could enable Russia to redeploy its troops to critical fronts, enhancing its operational capabilities.

...

For Pyongyang, this alliance represents more than immediate utility; it’s an investment in long-term security. Should DPRK soldiers die in support of Russian objectives, their sacrifice would create a powerful moral and political obligation – cementing the alliance with a “blood debt” of sorts. This concept of a ‘blood debt’ not only strengthens the immediate alliance but also ensures that Pyongyang could call upon Russia in times of need, leveraging this shared sacrifice to secure military support in the face of putative future conflicts with South Korea or US-led efforts at regime change.

DPRK troops are unlikely to be deployed to Donbass. However, as such restraint would signal that Russia’s reciprocal commitment to the Korean peninsula would remain limited to defending against incursions across the DPRK’s recognized borders. Pyongyang’s recent constitutional changes, renouncing claims to South Korean territory, further support this cautious strategy that is aligned with both nations’ interests.

While claims about DPRK troops in Kursk – ranging from photos of supposed combat operations to absurd reports of soldiers falling prey to internet porn addictions – have been widely debunked, they underscore the prevalence of misinformation about the alliance. As the owner of several DPRK cell phones and tablets, I can confirm that these devices cannot connect to the internet outside of North Korea, rendering such allegations implausible.

As always in wartime, propaganda and misinformation are ubiquitous.  Especially in the age of artificial intelligence, the fog-of-war obscures the facts on the ground, leaving us no alternative to speculation. While the details of DPRK military operations in Russia remain unclear, what is undeniable is the broader scope of the DPRK-Russia partnership.  The treaty goes far beyond military cooperation, into economic, scientific, academic, and cultural domains, reflecting a deliberate effort to institutionalize their multifaceted engagement.

I maintain that one has to exercise extreme caution when dealing with the claims of our garbage media system.  Even if what they are saying is based on genuine facts, are those the whole facts?  What are they leaving out?  And how are they interpreting it?  These propagandists are striving mightily to insinuate that countries helping Russia are evil and that they are doing an evil thing by helping Russia.  But the USA using Ukrainian nazis as cat's paws, and employing their own troops to help them, and dragooning ordinary Ukrainians into the slaughter to the tune of 500,000 dead in two years, ... while that's part of a noble struggle for a free, prosperous and democratic Ukraine.  Even as the USA imperialists help Israeli nazis genocide the Palestinians, employ Al Qaeda to conquer Syria, and subject their own people to the murderous for-profit health insurance nightmare and expecting them to be happy and complaisant about it.