North Korea Is Joining Russia’s War in Ukraine

The United States said for the first time that it had evidence of North Korean troops in Russia. This was buttressed by some South Korean lawmakers asserting that about 3,000 soldiers had been sent to support the war in Ukraine, with more to come. Russia and North Korea denied the claims, but both signed a mutual defense treaty back in June that committed the two countries to provide military assistance to each other if one was invaded, and Ukraine recently invaded Russia.

Not to mention that both regimes might be the only two in the entire world with less credibility than the United States at this point, and western assessments estimate that 115,000 Russians have died in Putin’s war, so there is no real reason to doubt the assertion that North Korean reinforcements sprang from that mutual defense treaty.

Former U.K. Defense Attaché John Foreman told the Kyiv Independent this is a sign that “Moscow is desperate,” as this reported shipment of up to 10,000 troops unfamiliar with the Ukrainian battlefield reflects how badly Putin needs bodies to fuel his war machine bogged down in this horrific conflict. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said it would be “very, very serious” if the North Koreans were preparing to fight next to Russia.

Because if that is the case, the U.S. and Europe are now effectively at war with North Korea through this proxy war in Ukraine with Russia. Comparisons to World War I and World War II are generally regarded as hackish literary crutches no proud writer should lean on, but damnit, the world needs to stop giving us parallels then. With the United States embroiled in proxy shooting wars with Russia, Iran, and soon to be North Korea apparently, George W. Bush’s Axis of Evil speech now may be realized by Joe Biden. Earth is an immensely dangerous place right now, and another nuclear power joining a war is not going to make it any safer.

Add in the fact that a record number of Chinese warplanes just flew around Taiwan during China’s large-scale sea and air drills last week, and the potential for conflict between basically every major power in the world exists on multiple continents at all times now. We are sitting in a tinderbox in more ways than one.