The North Korea sends troops (a contingent of at least 8,000 men) to fight in the Russian-Ukrainian war, as well as missiles. And since Friday, November 1, meetings between the foreign ministers of Russia and Korea have been held in Russia. This is a further escalation in the Ukrainian conflict: the direct involvement of a country outside the region in the war.
**>> War in Ukraine: what we know about Pyongyang’s decision to send soldiers to Russia to support Moscow
**The proximity between Russia and North Korea comes from history. To understand it, we have to go back to 1945. In August, while Japan capitulated, Soviet forces engaged in Manchuria and Mongolia converged on northern Korea and occupied it. The leader of the Korean resistance to the Japanese occupation, a communist, Kim Il-sung, became the leader of this part of the country. He heads the Provisional People’s Committee, a sort of government for the Soviet-held zone.
The Americans had landed in the south. They had supported a government in exile at home since the 1930s. In their area, they recreated a liberal system, and elections took place in 1948: Syngman Rhee was elected president of the council. The separation of the country into two zones did not prevent the communists from having numerous supporters in the south. Syngmna Rhee has 30,000 locked up.
At this time, Kim Il-sung had direct relations with Stalin. He is convinced that he can quickly crush the south. He asks Stalin for permission to attack when there are skirmishes between soldiers from the two zones. Stalin refuses. But Kim Il-sung still went on the offensive, because he had been equipped with heavy tanks and an air force by the Soviet Union. And moreover, since 1949, Mao won the war in China and proclaimed the People’s Republic of China. On June 25, 1950, the Korean War broke out. Bloody and cruel, the conflict lasted three years, bringing Korea and China closer together. But without breaking with the Soviet Union. Collectivization continues in the north. Everything is nationalized. After the end of the war, even housing was free.
The Kims succeed one another in power
North Korea remains close to Russia while China gets closer to the United States. It is constant under Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung’s own son, and then under Kim Jong-un, his grandson.
A less favorable moment in this relationship comes with Gorbachev and Yeltsin. North Korea has seemed isolated from a democratic South Korea since the end of the dictatorship in 1987. Ostracism against North Korea and sanctions brought the two countries closer together in the 2000s. Putin helped the country to circumvent the sanctions, just like Medvedev.
**>> Vladimir Putin advocates strengthening cooperation with North Korea “on all axes”
**Today’s North Korean engagement in Russia marks a step never taken before and illustrates how Putin seeks to strengthen an anti-Western pole around Russia; forcing China to follow it, or at least not to hinder it. It’s good an escalation in global tensions current.
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