A quick housekeeping note: I’m down to residual congestion. A bit in the sinuses, a bit of post-nasal drip, leading to a bit in the chest. I’m actually going to start working out again tomorrow, which will be the first time in three weeks. I’m just going to run through the basics tonight.
There’s a lot of North Korean news regarding Russia and Ukraine.
🪖🇰🇵 Russia is disguising North Korean soldiers as Tuvans on the frontlines, but fake IDs gave them away, Ukrainian SOF reports.
The documents had no stamps or photos, with Korean names written in Russian and signatures in Korean.
— UNITED24 Media (@united24media.com) December 23, 2024 at 3:43 AM
The Tyvans/Tuvans (it can be transliterated either way) are ethnic Mongols that live on the Russian signed of the steppe. Just like the Buryats.
‘Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian army officer heading a government unit tasked with countering Russian disinformation, said 60% of the artillery and mortar shells used by Russia in Ukraine now come from Pyongyang…’
www.wsj.com/world/russia…
— Franz-Stefan Gady (@hoanssolo.bsky.social) December 23, 2024 at 3:44 AM
From The Wall Street Journal via Archive.Today:
North Korea and Russia are deepening their military cooperation, as Pyongyang ramps up the supply of arms to Moscow for the war in Ukraine and receives much needed cash and oil from the Kremlin in return.
Recent satellite images show that North Korea is shipping more munitions to Russia and is expanding arms production at home to churn out the weapons Moscow needs to feed its voracious war machine. Assistance from North Korea is allowing Russia to press its advantage against exhausted Ukrainian troops and could help it resist pressure from the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump to end the conflict.
In turn, Pyongyang is already receiving much-needed cash and oil from Russia. Western officials worry North Korea could also ask for sensitive nuclear technology and material support from Russia in case of a war on the Korean Peninsula.
The deepening alliance between Russia and North Korea is alarming to the U.S. and its allies, making both countries more dangerous to their neighbors and more difficult to contain.
Millions of artillery shells from Pyongyang have allowed Russia to fill an ammunition deficit caused by almost three years of intense fighting. North Korean rockets are bombarding Ukrainian cities while Russia’s own missile production has been hobbled by Western sanctions. Military hardware, including multiple launch rocket systems, is flowing into Russia by train, with railroad traffic through the countries’ border reaching record highs.
Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian army officer heading a government unit tasked with countering Russian disinformation, said 60% of the artillery and mortar shells used by Russia in Ukraine now come from Pyongyang. “North Korean ammunition is holding the Russian defenses,” he said.
North Korea’s missiles now make up nearly a third of Russia’s ballistic missile launches at Ukraine this year, according to Ukrainian officials.
Manpower has further helped Russia swing the balance. The roughly 12,000 soldiers dispatched from North Korea are now engaged in active combat, U.S. officials said on Monday. More than 100 have been killed and around a thousand injured in combat against Ukrainian units occupying parts of Russia’s Kursk region, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers in a closed-door meeting on Thursday.
North Korea has shipped some 20,000 containers of munitions to Russia, according to Washington and Seoul officials, ranging from lower-quality ammunition such as 122 mm and 152 mm artillery shells to its newer Hwasong-11 class ballistic missiles. Ukrainian officials say the provision has amounted to more than five million artillery shells and dozens of rockets, including more than 100 Hwasong-11 class missiles.
“They can be imprecise, but the range is impressive,” a senior Ukrainian intelligence official said of the North Korean missiles provided to Russia. “It’s a threat to our cities.”
More recently, Pyongyang has sent 170 mm self-propelled howitzers and 240 mm long-range multiple rocket launchers.
The artillery shells initially supplied by North Korea were decades-old, raising suspicions that the Kim regime was dumping its old ammunition. But now, Pyongyang is supplying newer munitions. For instance, the 240 mm multiple rocket launchers sent to Russia were recently equipped with new guidance and control systems.
Similarly, North Korea’s largest 600 mm rocket launchers, or KN-25, were upgraded earlier this year with the support of Russian technicians, according to SI Analytics, a satellite imagery firm. The weapon, first tested in 2019, blurs the distinction between a multiple launch rocket system and a short-range ballistic missile.
More weapons are coming, by ship and train, to resupply Russian troops burning through huge quantities of arms, U.S. and South Korean officials say. Around 200 munitions factories in North Korea are operating at full capacity to produce weapons, and Russia is transferring fuel and equipment to support Pyongyang’s arms manufacturing, Seoul officials said.
A missile manufacturing complex producing the North Korean short-range ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine is expanding as well, according to satellite imagery. North Korea’s Hwasong-11 class missiles, dubbed KN-23 and KN-24 in the West, are produced at a plant on North Korea’s eastern coast. New construction appeared to be progressing rapidly, including a new building apparently aimed at concealing loading operations of the factory, SI Analytics said. Kim has visited the factory several times, during which he ordered the mass production of tactical missiles.
North Korean factories are capable of producing new Hwasong missiles in just months, said Damien Spleeters, the director of expeditionary operations at Conflict Armament Research. “The North Korean missiles are being made on demand,” he said.
Much more at the link!
“According to preliminary data, the number of killed and wounded North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region already exceeds 3,000 people.” – Zelensky.
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) December 23, 2024 at 11:04 AM
From The Kyiv Independent:
The number of killed and injured North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk Oblast has surpassed 3,000, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement shared on Telegram on Dec. 23.
Russia has reportedly deployed about 12,000 North Korean troops to help oust Ukrainian troops fighting in Kursk Oblast since early August.
Zelensky warned of the global risks posed by deepening military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang, including the transfer of modern warfare experience and advanced military technology.
“There are risks of North Korea sending additional soldiers and military equipment to the Russian army, and we will have tangible responses to this,” Zelensky said.
He added that increased collaboration between Russia and North Korea threatens to destabilize the Korean Peninsula and nearby regions.
Zelensky’s estimation, that he said comes from Ukraine’s intelligence, is a significant increase from other recent reports about the North Korean casualties.
South Korean MP Lee Sung-kwon told reporters on Dec. 19 that at least 100 North Korean troops have been killed and 1,000 injured, with casualties linked to their lack of experience with terrain and modern drone warfare.
Reports of North Korean troops fighting in Kursk Oblast emerged earlier in November, but Russia reportedly started using them in ground assaults in December.
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
War for Ukraine Day 1,034: A Brief Monday Night UpdatePost + Comments (24)
