Earlier this week I pointed to a Ukrainian (South Korean, US) propaganda campaign which claims that thousands of North Korean soldiers will soon fight with on the Russian side against Ukraine:
To have North Koreans fighting in Russia against the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk would make little sense. That incursion is for one already mostly defeated.
Besides that the language and cultural problems would make the integration of such forces into Russian military operations nearly impossible. I am sure that the Russian military would be strongly against it.
Zelenski’s claims were amplified through various proxies and media appearances:
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I regard the whole claim of North Korean troops in Russia as a fake news story and I am sure that most experts will follow me in that judgment.However, today US media manage to play up the nonsense:
Why North Korea is sending soldiers to the Russian front lines – Washington Post, Oct 15 2024…
I do not believe that any politician or military in the west will believe that nonsense which is again solely sourced to Ukrainian military intelligence claims. But there is clear campaign by the Ukrainian government to make the issue stick.
At the time of writing the above I did not know that the idea for this campaign came from RAND, the Pentagon’s think tank which often proposes strategic ideas. In a commentary about Russian/North Korean and Chinese cooperation published on October 11, three days before the start of Zelenski’s campaign, a RAND analyst wrote:
What Should the United States Do?
Given the differences in the objectives of Russia, China, and North Korea, the United States should be mounting major information operations against these three countries to highlight their differences and fuel distrust among them. Doing so would increase the likelihood of decoupling at least some of their partnerships. Some examples of potential information operations seem obvious.
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Information operations are also possible against Russia and North Korea.
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[T]he United States should recognize that North Korean military advisors are supporting Russian use of North Korean military supplies in occupied areas of Ukraine.
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The South Korean Defense Minister has said that North Korea will likely send more of its troops to support Russia, probably on the battlefield. Given Russian attitudes, those troops may well serve as cannon fodder. The North Korean elites need to hear what Kim may do to their sons.
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This new cooperation between Russia and North Korea is hardly a signal of a budding long-term alliance and U.S. information campaigns could help speed its demise.
Just three days later the Military Intelligence of the Ukrainian army, headed by General Budanov, started to ‘leak’ claims to the Ukrainian press about North Korean troops in Russia. It is obvious where this came from:
According to a 2024 report by The New York Times, Budanov was one of the members of the elite Unit 2245 of the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate trained by CIA.
Since launching the first rumors of 1,500, then 3,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia, Budanov has steadily increased the claim:
11,000 North Korean troops will be ‘ready to fight’ in Ukraine by Nov. 1, Budanov says – Kyiv Independent, Oct 18 2024
The South Korean news agency Yonhap, well known for peddling fake news about North Korea, repeats similar South Korean ‘intelligence’ claims:
N. Korea decides to send around 10,000 soldiers to support Russia in Ukraine war: Seoul – Yonhap, Oct 18, 2024
US media are also all over the theme. After the Washington Post had peddled the rumors from Ukraine the New York Times also jumped in:
North Korea, Longing for Battle Experience, Eyes Ukraine – New York Times, Oct 16
The NYT report caused some bewilderment:
Left I on the News 🇨🇺🏳️⚧️ @leftiblog – 14:07 UTC · Oct 16, 2024
An entire NYT article https://nytimes.com/2024/10/16/world/asia/north-korea-ukraine-russia.html [is] based on the premise that North Korean troops are fighting in Ukraine. Not until the 15th paragraph does the reader learn there’s no evidence for this whatsoever.
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NATO agreed with Left I:
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the allies “have no evidence that North Korean soldiers are involved in the fight. But we do know that North Korea is supporting Russia in many ways, weapons supplies, technological supplies, innovation, to support them in the war effort. And that is highly worrying.”
The current election season assured that the propaganda theme would soon expand into the political realm:
Congress demands Biden’s response to North Korean troops participation in war against Ukraine – UA Pravda, Oct 19 2024
Mike Turner, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee in the United States, has demanded an “immediate” briefing from the White House amid reports that North Korean troops may be involved in hostilities against Ukraine on the side of Russia.
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“North Korean troops, either attacking Ukraine from Russian territory or entering into Ukrainian territory, must be a red line for the United States and NATO. Your administration must make that absolutely clear and unequivocal,” Turner wrote to Biden.
As the claim of North Korean troops preparing for war in Ukraine still lacked evidence the Ukrainian Intelligence had to fabricate some:
Lord Bebo @MyLordBebo – 11:21 UTC · Oct 18, 2024
🇺🇦🇷🇺🇰🇵 BREAKING STUPIDITY: Ukraine shows a North Korean POW! The problem is he speaks Ukrainian, LMAO.
They explain it, that Koreans live close to the border with russia so they learn Russian, ok … sure but he speaks UKRAINIAN … LMAO
They took some student from Kiev or something and forced him to do this video!
He recites the Ukrainian poem “Love Ukraine” by Volodymyr Sosiura in Ukrainian and has very good pronunciation. No way he just learned it in 10 minutes, not humanly possible.
Embedded video
There are also two videos which allegedly show North Korean soldiers being outfitted with Russian gear as well as training with them.
North Korean troops seen being kitted out in Russia ahead of likely despatch to Ukraine – CNN, Oct 19, 2024
In a video shared with CNN by Ukrainian government organization, the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security, a long line of soldiers can be seen queuing up to receive their uniforms. The soldiers are thought to be speaking in Korean although the low quality audio prevented their discussions from being fully understood.
However, knowledgeable sources claim that the videos were taken during one of the yearly LAROS maneuvers during which troops from Laos and Russia perform military drills. The caps worn by the soldiers in the -Ukraine provided- CNN video look like the caps of Laotian soldiers.
Shortly after RAND proposed a US information operation campaign around the theme of North Korean soldiers in Russia the Ukrainian military intelligence service under CIA trainee Budanov started to spread rumors of North Korean soldiers soon to fight on the Russian side. The numbers claimed by Budanov have since steadily increased. South Korean intelligence, also associated with the CIA, and US media have joined the campaign. The chair of the House Intelligence Committee is milking the campaign to make political points.
Evidence that was supposed to support the claims has been exposed as being fake. The whole story is thus based on nothing but ‘intelligence’ rumors which are following a RAND proposed script. Don’t fall for it.
Reprinted with permission from Moon of Alabama.
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