04-11-2024: If one was to pay attention, for whatever reason, to Western corporate media, one might be concerned that 12 000 troops from the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a.k.a “North Korea”) are being deployed in the Russian Federation to fight against NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) armed Nazified military units in Ukraine. Like much else reported in the Western mainstream media, there is not a shred of evidence to back up this claim. New NATO head and former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the deployment (which doesn’t exist) is a measure of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “desperation” and claimed Russia is unable to sustain an assault on Ukraine without foreign support.[1] Talk about projection. In fact, it is NATO and the governments of the US (United States of America) and the governments of Western Europe who are desperate, as they know very well that they are losing their proxy war in Ukraine, and that Russia will win and will impose its own terms. This is the main reason for false claims of DPRK troops in Russia fighting against Ukraine.
Satraps issue fabrications
Western satraps such as the doomed regime of Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev and the US state backed Republic of Korea (ROK or “South Korea”) first issued fabricated claims of DPRK troops being deployed in Russia. Zelensky was just making things up, by saying we think “they will have 12 000 soon”,[2] which indicates speculation at best. ROK lawmakers made the claim – again without evidence – that DPRK soldiers are being taught the Russian words for “fire” and “in position”.[3] The ROK government is hardly an innocent party. In 2023, it decided to “lend” the Pentagon 500 000 shells,[4] which means this enabled the US to send its own shells to arm the Nazi battalions in Ukraine to fight Russia. Seoul’s (the capital of the ROK) claims that DPRK troops are already in Russia to fight Ukraine could be a massive distraction, given that the ROK President’s approval rating has dropped to 24.1%, the lowest level since he took office in 2022.[5]
Creating fake fear over the alleged designs of Pyongyang (capital of the DPRK) is a time worn tactic of politicians in the ROK to distract citizens from internal issues. Current president Yoon Suk Yeol dramatically reversed the policy towards the DPRK of his predecessor, Moon Jae-in. Moon Jae-in favoured the Sunshine Policy[6] of a peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula. Yoon Suk Yeol, on the other hand, is gung-ho with the US deep state with outrageous provocations against the DPRK. This has obviously heightened the danger of war, which, among other issues, has led to a dramatic drop in domestic support within the ROK. While opinion towards the DPRK is somewhat divided in the ROK, the overwhelming majority unsurprisingly want to avoid the catastrophic danger of an all out war.
The government funded Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) chimed in, with a nonsensical radio interview with Matthew Sussex, an associate professor at the Australian National University (ANU). In the interview, Sussex simply stated the unverified claims of DPRK troops in Russia preparing to fight NATO backed Ukraine as if it was unquestioned.[7] The ABC has in the last ten years become such a mouthpiece of the Australian ruling class that some joke that ABC stands for “Always Bashing China”. Indeed, anti-DPRK hysteria is also aimed at its giant neighbour and ally, the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In fact, the horrific Korean War of 1950-53, in which three million Koreans and one million Chinese volunteers gave their lives fighting US (and Australian) imperialism to a standstill, was primarily aimed at the victory of the revolution in China which triumphed the year before, in 1949. Other programs have aired on Western media with “experts” offering trite anti-DPRK propaganda while openly pretending that the fantastic claims of DPRK troop deployments are true.
Western troops in Ukraine
What has been confirmed is that there are Western troops fighting in Ukraine “helping” the NATO armed Ukrainian forces wage a proxy war against Russia. Even the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) admits there are large contingents of special forces in Ukraine from the US, UK, France and the Netherlands.[8] Even if it was true that Russia was using DPRK troops in Russia to fight NATO armed Ukraine, this would only be the same as what the Western governments have been doing themselves all along. A video has emerged which shows some men of a type of Asian appearance wearing Russian uniforms in what looks like a kitting out session. Yet Russia has hundreds of ethnic groups and subgroups, some of which are Asian. Moreover, it is difficult to tell if a person from the Russian Federation is Tuvan, Yakut, Buryat or Russian Korean (who are native to the Russian Far East).[9] So this video is just as likely to show Russian soldiers receiving Russian military uniforms!
It may be true that DPRK troops are indeed inside Russia, cooperating with the Russian military. After all in June, Vladimir Putin visited Pyongyang with the result being a Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, which covers military, trade, political, cultural and sporting ties.[10] Yet the most important part of this deal was a mutual defence pact,[11] or a straight up military alliance. In view of NATO’s proxy war on Russia, which constantly threatens nuclear war, this pact is one which considerably strengthens Eurasian defence against imperialism. On the 24th of October, it was reported that the Russian State Duma (the lower chamber of parliament) officially ratified the treaty signed by Vladimir Putin and DPRK Leader Kim Jong-Un during the June visit. Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko stated that the treaty will bring relations with the DPRK to a new level and contribute to the “creation of a just multipolar international system”.[12] This is a marked advance from ten years ago, when the Russian Federation was actually helping the United Nations enforce sanctions against the DPRK. Now, when Washington is threatening Russia, the PRC and the DPRK with ever increasing hostility which imperils the world with nuclear war, the Russia-DPRK military pact can only be welcomed by working people internationally.
“Flash Drives for Freedom”
Lurid Western government claims of DPRK troops fighting for the Russian Federation against supposedly innocent Nazi reinforced and NATO armed Ukrainian forces come hot on the heels of other reports of balloons full of plastic and paper trash from the DPRK falling in areas of the ROK, including the Presidential Compound in the capital Seoul.[13] This is most likely to be true, but like virtually every Western corporate media report about the DPRK it is entirely devoid of context, and attempts to depict the government of the DPRK as crazed and irrational for doing so out of the blue. In fact, the DPRK is only responding to 10 years of provocations from the US backed ROK, which The Atlantic admits that the West has funded and organised the flying of “Flash Drives for Freedom” by balloon from the South to the North for the entire period.[14] The New Atlas has alerted the world to the fact that it is not at all the South Korean people who have been sending flash drives containing K-pop and South Korean television shows, along with propaganda critical of DPRK Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un.[15] These extreme violations of DPRK airspace have in fact been carried out by US government funded operatives on the ground in the ROK,[16] with the express aim of regime change in the North.
The “Flash Drives for Freedom” organisation is run by the so-called Human Rights Foundation, which its website shows openly is based in New York in the US,[17] and not anywhere in the ROK. The Human Rights Foundation also organises the “Oslo Freedom Forum”, funded by the Freedom Fund, of which the US State Department is a “key investor”.[18] Millions of working people in the West are well accustomed by now to dismiss US imperialist claims of fighting wars for “freedom and democracy”, when the reality is plainly the maintenance of a faltering domestic capitalism. Though it takes some chutzpah for the US ruling class and its scribes to claim that there is no “freedom” in the DPRK, when all DPRK citizens have free access to the most essential parts of life – housing, healthcare, education, universal employment – when working people in the US are guaranteed none of these whatsoever.
The only part of US imperialist propaganda regularly hurled at the DPRK is that there is an idiosyncratic leadership cult around the Kim family, of which leader Kim Jong Un is the current figurehead. The overt glorification of leaders is anathema to the building of genuine socialism. Despite this, the DPRK remains a bureaucratically deformed workers’ state born out of unimaginable sacrifice and heroism when it fought US imperialism to a standstill in 1953, when the US empire was at the height of its power. This is why it is in the interests of working people to demand the unconditional military defence of the DPRK against US imperialist orchestrated regime change war. Some well meaning but misguided liberals in the West push for the “peaceful reunification” of Korea, as it remains the only country on the planet that remains divided at the behest of a foreign power. Yet this would allow capitalism and its Washington benefactors to remain in the South as a perennial threat. For this reason, authentic Trotskyists call for the revolutionary reunification of the Korean peninsula, through a proletarian political revolution in the North, combined with a socialist revolution in the South.
The DPRK and the BRICS + alliance
Today, the defence of the DPRK against imperialism is bound up with the defence of the BRICS + alliance, which, amongst other epoch marking achievements, has come to represent the Global South or the “global majority”. The BRICS + alliance is a non-imperialist bloc, which for the first time in history, contains a material basis for the construction of an alternative to 500 years of capitalist exploitation and plunder of the globe. The five original members of the BRICS are Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The four new members admitted in January 2024 were Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. At the 16th Summit of BRICS held in Kazan in late October, 13 new partner countries were accepted, which now have a path towards full membership. These nations are: Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Türkiye, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.[19] The BRICS Kazan Summit Declaration, containing 134 points,[20] clearly marks a shift in the geopolitical tectonic plates, predicated on the decline of Western imperialism.
The defence of the DPRK is bound up with the defence of BRICS + against imperialism even though the DPRK is not a part of BRICS + and it is doubtful that it will to seek to join. Nevertheless, the DPRK has a military pact with key pillars of BRICS +, such as the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and, from June, the Russian Federation. The DPRK also sent a high-level delegation to the Islamic Republic of Iran in April this year, deepening their economic and military ties. Most especially, the DPRK and Iran probably shared ballistic missile technology,[21] with both nations having developed extensive arsenals in direct response to almost limitless threats of war from US imperialism. However one might view the politics and positions of the DPRK and its leading Korean Workers Party (KWP), its military links with Russia, China and Iran are taken of necessity, and in fact lessen the chance of the Pentagon launching a nuclear war on any of these states.
The DPRK is unlikely to seek to join BRICS + due to Juche, the guiding ideology for the DPRK and the KWP. Juche loosely translates as “self-reliance”, and was reportedly coined by founding President Kim Il Sung and later developed by Kim Jong Il.[22] Kim Jong Il apparently added the Songun (military first) policy, and Songun advocates in the DPRK claim that this has developed Juche to a higher plane.[23] In one sense, Juche is used to maintain the Kim dynasty, but on the other hand, it cannot be denied that it has benefitted the DPRK to maintain an independent course. It was not reliant on the former Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR), nor was it on the PRC, despite its historical ties. It survived the collapse of the USSR, and despite harsh conditions during the 1990s was able to significantly recover. In practice, the “military first” policy of the DPRK has been the right decision also, constantly threatened as it is by US imperialism, which has around 28 000 troops permanently stationed in the ROK.[24] Spending on the military does distort its economy, but the experience of the 21st century clearly shows that any non-imperialist state must take such measures or face a US backed regime change war or colour revolution. The existence of the BRICS + alliance and the DPRK’s friendly relations with BRICS + nations, are important bulwarks against the scourge of imperialist war.
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[1] www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/no-new-limits-on-ukraines-use-of-us-weapons-if-north-korea-enters-fight-pentagon-says (30-10-2024)
[2] www.barrons.com/news/zelensky-expects-12-000-north-korean-soldiers-in-russia-soon-8b3df695 (30-10-2024)
[3] keyt.com/news/national-world/cnn-world/2024/10/29/north-korean-soldiers-learning-russian-commands-and-may-be-sent-to-ukraine-front-lines-south-korean-lawmakers-say/ (30-10-2024)
[4] www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2023-04-12/south-korea-ammo-loan-ukraine-9778630.html (30-10-2024)
[5] www.globalresearch.ca/seoul-attempts-distract-domestic-issues-alleging-north-korea-ukraine/5871169 (30-10-2024)
[6] https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2020/08/18/opinion/columns/The-Moon-Jaein-administration-North-Korea-Helsinki-Accords/20200818201500322.html (30-10-2024)
[7] www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/abc-news-daily/why-are-north-korean-troops-in-russia/104528206 (30-10-2024)
[8] www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65245065 (30-10-2024)
[9] www.globalresearch.ca/12000-north-koreans-fighting-ukraine/5870823 (30-10-2024)
[10] www.en.kremlin.ru/events/president/transcripts/74334 (30-10-2024)
[11] www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/putin-kim-agree-develop-strategic-fortress-relations-kcna-says-2024-06-18/ (30-10-2024)
[12] www.rt.com/russia/606351-russia-north-korea-treaty/ (30-10-2024)
[13] www.military.com/daily-news/2024/10/24/trash-carried-north-korean-balloon-again-falls-presidential-compound-seoul.html (02-11-2024)
[14] www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/01/we-hacked-north-korea-with-balloons-and-usb-drives/283106/ (02-11-2024)
[15] www.edition.cnn.com/2024/10/11/asia/north-korea-south-drones-pyongyang/index.html (02-11-2024)
[16] www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N90Z8fzyiU&t=875s (02-11-2024)
[17] www.flashdrivesforfreedom.org (02-11-2024)
[18] www.asia-pacificresearch.com/us-government-behind-campaign-violating-north-korean-airspace/5632419 (02-11-2024)
[19] https://en.interaffairs.ru/article/brics-grows-adding-13-new-partner-countries-at-historic-summit-in-kazan-russia/ (02-11-2024)
[20] www.globalresearch.ca/16th-brics-summit-kazan-declaration-strengthening-multilateralism-just-global-development-security/5871536 (02-11-2024)
[21] www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/04/103_373421.html (02-11-2024)
[22] www.link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137455666_14 (02-11-2024)
[23] www.keia.org/publication/military-first-politics-songun-understanding-kim-jong-ils-north-korea/ (02-11-2024)
[24] www.stripes.com/theaters/asia_pacific/2023-12-08/south-korea-troop-levels-ndaa-12293139.html (02-11-2024)
Image: Photos like this one are used by some in the West to claim that it shows DPRK troops in Russia receiving Russian uniforms. In fact, it may be evidence of Russians of one or more of the many Asian ethnic groups which make up the Russian Federation receiving basic military training. http://www.theasialive.com
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