the essential
Ukraine, the United States and South Korea accuse North Korea of sending more than 10,000 troops to help Russian forces, of whom 300 are believed to have died. Referred to as cannon fodder by many observers, what is the real purpose of the presence of the North Korean contingent in the Kursk region.
“It’s a kind of win-win between two losers,” assures Jérôme Pellistrandi, general and editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine. But what is the purpose of the presence of the contingent of North Korean soldiers sent to Ukraine?
For several weeks, information has been accumulating and suggesting that this force seems undertrained, unable to communicate with the Russians and used as cannon fodder to reconquer the approximately 500 to 600 km² occupied by the Ukrainians in the region. from Kursk.
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Some 300 North Korean soldiers were killed out of the thousands deployed by Pyongyang in Russia to support its war against Ukraine, a South Korean MP said on Monday, January 13, citing Seoul's intelligence service.
On the ground, “they have methods which practically correspond to those used during the Korean War in the 1950s, it is infantry which mounts the assault”, comments Jérôme Pellistrandi. Notes found on dead soldiers indicate that North Korean authorities pressured them to commit suicide, including having themselves “blown up before capture.”
-“It is not a question of tilting the balance of power in favor of Russia”
Ukraine, the United States and South Korea accuse nuclear-armed Pyongyang of sending more than 10,000 troops to help Russian forces in their invasion. “But it is not a question of tipping the balance of power in favor of Russia, believes Jérôme Pellistrandi, Kim Jong Un wants to harden his soldiers, in particular his officers, who have not been to war for decades.”
There are also counterparts in terms of the development of certain equipment programs, on nuclear power and everything related to aeronautics, “because on this side, North Korea is very late”, affirms the former general French. Even if neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have ever admitted or denied this deployment, the alleged involvement of a foreign army constituted a major escalation in the invasion of Ukraine which is entering a critical phase with the return of Donald Trump. Trump at the White House on January 20.
“They are there for officer training”
“Seoul's fear is that the North Koreans will learn from the battlefield and that the feedback will be favorable to them,” explains Jérôme Pellistrandi. “We are in this permanent fool's game, but one thing is certain , is that it is an opportunity for the Kim Jong Un regime to consolidate its military capabilities at a price that it considers, very cynically, low given the number of soldiers who make up its army.
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It would therefore be the training of his officers that would count for the dictator. “They are on site for the training of officers, which would be around 500, in order to discover new combat methods particularly linked to modern technologies, such as drones, electronic warfare, jamming… So many elements that Pyongyang does not not necessarily mastered.
