North Korea is set to dispatch up to 100,000 personnel to support the three parties’ ongoing war effort against the Ukrainian government and its NATO supporters
The conflict between Ukraine and Russia is about to become more “bloody” after North Korea is said to be ready to send about 100,000 volunteers to the troubled region to help the Russian army.
The report on the offer to send North Korean volunteers to Ukraine was initially made by the host of the Russian television station, Igor Korotchenko on the Channel One station in Russia.
Reports from both the self proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics in eastern Ukraine, and from a number of Russian sources, have indicated that North Korea is set to dispatch up to 100,000 personnel to support the three parties’ ongoing war effort against the Ukrainian government and its NATO supporters. This follows reports that North Korea would support reconstruction efforts in eastern Ukraine, and Pyongyang’s decision to afford diplomatic recognition to the two republics, which were recognised by Moscow in February. North Korea has a long history of supporting war efforts across the world against Western interests, most notably its contributions to war efforts by Vietnam and Syria including dispatch of technicians, doctors, artillery advisors, and special forces to bolster the Syrian government in the 2010s.
Russian sources have highlighted that Korean experience in “counter battery warfare” could be particularly prized, with North Korea fielding considerably more capable artillery systems than Russia itself which previously fuelled speculation that Russia may seek to purchase them to counter NATO artillery deliveries to Ukraine.
North Korean ambassador Sin Hong Chol then confirmed his country’s intention to send volunteers to Russia in his meeting with the ambassador of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Olga Makeeva in Moscow recently.
DPR is the Donetsk region which was part of Ukraine before it was occupied by the Russian armed forces.
In fact, according to Korotchenko, about 100,000 North Korean volunteers who will be sent to Ukraine are “workers” who will help in the reconstruction of the areas badly affected by the war.
North Korea indeed sends their workers to several countries mainly to work in the high-risk mining sector.
Among the countries that employ North Korean workers is Malaysia (when the country has diplomatic relations with Pyongyang ), with about 117 of them working in mines in Sarawak.
Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexandre Matsegora described the North Korean workers as “highly skilled and motivated”.
“North Korean workers are highly qualified, hardworking and willing to work in challenging areas and are an important workforce in the efforts to rebuild the destroyed areas in the Donbas (the area of Ukraine occupied by Russia),” he said.
He said North Korea is one of the few countries that is able to act on its own in matters of foreign relations, without having to follow the lead of any country, be it Russia, the United States or China.
“No country can force North Korea to do something without their own will,” he said
Moscow and Pyongyang have close diplomatic relations with North Korea being among the earliest countries to recognize the DPR and the Luhansk People’s Republic which only came into being a few weeks ago from the Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian army.
However, international observers described the sending of 100,000 North Korean volunteers to Ukraine as a cover-up because their actual duties were as mercenaries.
The North Korean “volunteers” are actually intended to replace the thousands of Russian soldiers who were killed after several months of fighting with the Ukrainian army.
Ukrainian authorities estimate that up to 400,000 Russian soldiers and volunteers were killed in Ukraine, although Western intelligence agencies put the death toll at 15,000.
The international observer said it was very certain that the North Korean “volunteers” who would be sent to the troubled region of Ukraine would be forced to take up arms and fight on behalf of Russia.
That is the real purpose of their presence in Ukraine, according to the international observer. — DSA