Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Are North Korean Workers Going To Annexed Portions Of Ukraine?

 Maybe. An October 21 report in NK Daily says so, with further speculation on this matter on blogs that cover North Korea. Supposedly Kim Jong Un agreed to this with V.V. Putin in their most recent meeting, with the number supposedly to be around 800-1,000, with the NK Daily report saying that they have actually been selected, and with Russia, China, and North Korea somehow agreeing that having these workers work in Russian-occupied annexed portions of Ukraine would not violate sanctions.  

I do not know what these workers will supposedly be doing. However, supposedly they will be going in November specifically to the Donbas area. I guess we shall see more about this, a curious development.

Barkley Rosser

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

North Korea, Iran...who's next? If their soldiers are killed could cause other challenges....

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

My wise wife suspects these "workers" may end up as soldiers. I do not know. Maybe. For better or worse, the DPRK is one of the four nations besides Russia itself to vote no on the UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia for annexing portions of Ukraine. An important group of 35 nations representing around half the world,s population abstained, including most importantly China and India.

There have been reports that North Korea is supplying Russia with artillery ammunition. This has been denied by everybody. I do not know if they are or not and this story did not address that issue.

Of course, while it is being denied by the main participants, most of the world believes that Iran is supplying Russia with serious drones that have caused a lot of damage. Among the damages from all that, I fear, is the long sufferung JCPoA nuclear agreement with Iran, probably now beyond recall.

Barkley Rosser

Anonymous said...

Drones - the Gatling gun of today....

run75441 said...

Barkley:

They are probably soldiers being labeled as workers.

Unknown said...

... with Russia, China, and North Korea somehow agreeing ...

[ China, of course, would never have been consulted, nor would France or South Africa or Indonesia have been consulted. ]

Anonymous said...

You and your wife need to read more. The North Koreans will provide very cheap labor in the Donbas region once the fighting eases down. They sure as hell will not be soldiers. Though your wife's theory provided me with some chuckles though. North Korea's government would likely be compensated with food, fuel, and equipment--it's doubtful they want rubles.

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

Unknown and Anonymous,

I am quoting a story out of NK Daily. How do either of you know better? Got a source? Why is that the Chinese would not be condulted? They are friendly with both of those nations, who may well want to have China's agreement on this.

The story also said the workers are scheduled to go in November. The war is not likely to be over by then.

Sorry, but please do not tell me to go read more. How about you two read more and provide a source that supports your claims?

Anonymous said...

Nobody (other than possibly your very crappy source) said the war would be over in November. Which is part of what makes your theory about North Korea sending soldiers so asinine.

Also, just for the record (I find the question of "consultation with China" boringly unimportant and moot), do you think everytime Kim Jung-on "consults" with Chinese leaders he puts it out on a bullhorn and sends a press release to Reuters?? He's a man obsessed with a public image of strength. Every public move Kim Jung-un makes is to signal an image of public strength. You don't project an image of strength by calling out over a bullhorn "I just ran this by Xi Jinping, and he says I can stay out past 10:00pm with my girl tonight" or announce over the public address system Xi has given permission for Kim Jung-un that he can eat dessert before he finishes his brussel sprouts.

Unknown said...

NK Daily report saying that they have actually been selected, and with Russia, China, and North Korea somehow agreeing that having these workers work in Russian-occupied annexed portions of Ukraine would not violate sanctions....

[ The "source" is only bent on undermining North Korea. Any writing that does not contribute to this is accidental. The idea that China was consulted and "agreed" to anything at all in this matter is perfectly ridiculous. The idea that NK Daily could "know" China was consulted on such a matter is also ridiculous.

Of course, China could have "no" possible part in consulting on this matter.

Workers may be sent to annexed regions of Ukraine, but that will have nothing at all to do with China. ]

Anonymous said...

I think that doth protest too much...

Anonymous said...

For the record, I don't find the idea of NK laborers in Donbas, or Russian controlled portions of far eastern Ukraine to be ridiculous. My argument is with the timing, and if any of them would be "soldiers". If this is printed in a RESPECTED outlet that before the end of year 2022, any North Koreans were acting as soldiers before the end of year '22, I will come back to this blog and apologize to the blog host. I see the chances of that happening somewhere around 0%

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

Um, for the recored it is NOT my theory that they are soldiers. That was the speculation of my wife, who knows a lot. But I am skeptical of that. The article said they would be workers but did not say what kind of workers.

The article may be weong, but there it is, for better or worse. I have seen no commentary on this in US MSM..

run75441 said...

Barkley:

Really North Korea would not lie to silly Americans. And Russians are pure of heart too!

The Russians really are winning this battle with Ukraine, suffered few casualties, and have taken and kept much of the land they invaded.

A thousand soldiers disguised as workers is not a big deal.

Anonymous said...

AP had a decent covering on it. Sorry I don't have the link handy. Pretty specialized topic though, just use the obvious keywords search. Posted in last 3 weeks time.