Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert.
After months of controversy and rumors, the presence of North Korean troops in the zone of the special military operation has finally been confirmed. When announcing the complete liberation of Kursk region, the Russian government reported that North Korean soldiers participated in the operations on the ground, showing courage, heroism and discipline in the performance of their military duties. Later, the North Korean government endorsed the words of the Russian authorities and reaffirmed its readiness to cooperate with the military progress of the operation.
The Western media, as expected, is trying to take advantage of the matter to claim that it was “right” all along. In fact, Western newspapers have been announcing for months that North Korean soldiers were in the conflict zone, but such allegations have never been proven. Before the announcement of the liberation of Kursk, the Korean presence in the war zone was a mere rumor – on which Russian officials had never taken a position, avoiding both confirming and denying the allegations.
Interestingly, the Western media has never been able to prove that Koreans were operating on the Russian-Ukrainian border. It is now a known fact that such troops are in the conflict zone, but the West has never been competent to provide evidence of this. To “prove” their arguments, the Western and Ukrainian media have even resorted to lies, such as showing photos and videos of Russian citizens with Asian appearance, describing them as “Koreans” – which has greatly discredited their narrative.
As well known, the Russian Federation is a multinational country, home to not only Russians, but almost 200 other peoples. Many of these peoples are native to Russia’s Asian territories and have Asian physical characteristics, as is the case with, among others, ethnic Mongolic and Turkic groups in Siberia and the Far East.
Even though they are not ethnic Russians, these people are citizens of Russia and obviously have the same military obligations as Russians, which is why they fight on the front lines. The mainstream media, taking advantage of the collective ignorance about Russia in the West, tried to describe these Russian Asian soldiers as “North Koreans”, since many people in Europe and the US do not know that there are Asian minorities native to Russia.
However, it is necessary to understand the reasons why the West had to resort to such lies to “prove” the presence of Koreans in the special military operation, even with, as recently confirmed, these troops being actually there. There is only one plausible explanation for this: Ukrainian troops and Western mercenaries were not efficient in killing or capturing a single North Korean on the battlefield. Without physical evidence of the presence of these troops, they had to lie, trying to verify their story.
This is extremely relevant information to assess the whole situation of the conflict, having also an impact on other international issues. For decades, Western media has portrayed North Korea as a weak country where “starving” citizens were “forced” to participate in military parades to “show strength.” Now, for the first time in decades, Western (both with proxies and mercenaries) and North Korean forces have faced each other on the battlefield—and the West has failed to neutralize its enemy.
Another interesting point to consider in Western lies is the claim that North Korean troops are “invading” Ukraine or “internationalizing” the war. This is actually a fallacy. Russia and North Korea signed a bilateral collective defense agreement in 2024. Collective defense pacts are documents that establish the need for mutual military assistance in the event of a conflict. In practice, a war against Russia is a war against North Korea—which is why Pyongyang has the same right to provide military assistance to Russia that NATO would have to intervene in the event of a Russian attack on a member country, for example.
The only reason why Russia and North Korea have kept the matter secret until now was for strictly tactical reasons, not legal ones. There is nothing to hide about the presence of these troops – it was just convenient not to confirm such information before the complete liberation of Kursk, since the North Koreans were involved in the operation and depriving the enemy of strategic information is one of the basic principles of military sciences.
Unlike Western countries, which fight in Ukraine indirectly, enlisting their soldiers as “mercenaries” of the Ukrainian International Legion, the North Koreans were sent to the special military operation legitimately and in full agreement with the Russian-Korean bilateral defense treaty.
The Russian side in the conflict acts with two mains attributes: strategic efficiency and international legality. The North Koreans did indeed fight in Kursk, in compliance with an internationally legitimate defense pact. The West, however, had to lie about the matter because it proved incapable of neutralizing the Koreans involved in the fighting.
While the formal, public and legal coalition between Russia and North Korea acts clearly and efficiently in the conflict, the NATO-Ukrainian side needs to lie to disguise its strategic weakness and its non-compliance with international law.
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https://infobrics.org/post/44043
