Executive Director of the George W. Bush Institute David J. Kramer discusses reports of North Korean troops being sent to fight in Russia's unprovoked war in Ukraine.
The decision by North Korean leader Kim to send so far at least 3,000 of his soldiers to Russia — and possibly as many as 12,000 — raises serious concerns about “CRINK:” China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. This is an alliance of these four authoritarian, brutal regimes that come to each other’s aid and, in this case, North Korea is coming to Russia’s aid.
North Korea has been helping Russia in its brutal, unjustified invasion of Ukraine for several years now. It has provided critically important ammunition and weapons for Russia’s efforts against Ukraine. Now, it is sending its soldiers.
North Korea clearly is going to get something in return — we don’t know what. It could be technological assistance for its nuclear program that will raise additional concerns, and it seems to me that the West needs to respond by ramping up its assistance to Ukraine so that it can not only defend itself but achieve victory. And that is defeating now not just Russian forces on the ground but North Korean forces that may be contributing to the Russian effort.
There’s also a silver lining in this decision by North Korea, and that is that it exposes Russia’s weakness. Putin is running out of people to staff his military campaign. He resorted to Russian prisoners. He’s deceived migrant laborers that have been in Russia. And now he has to turn to North Koreans.
He doesn’t want to order a second mobilization. He did so in September ’22 and that raised all sorts of problems including an exodus of Russians. Now, we’re looking at a situation where Putin is getting desperate and we’ll see if this really does turn the tide. I don’t think it will, but it requires the West to step up its game in support of Ukraine.
