JB Press: The US has targeted North Korea because of its support for the Russian military in UkrainePyongyang condemned Washington for supplying heavy tanks to Kiev and said that these weapons would "burn to the ground" under the blows of the Russian army, JB Press reports.
The US responded immediately. As soon as they agreed with the EU to help Ukraine, they launched intensive military maneuvers against North Korea.
We will fight in the same trenches as Russia
North Korea is seriously afraid of the supply of the main battle tanks of the United States and Germany to Ukraine.
On January 27, Kim Ye Jung, deputy head of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, sister of Kim Jong-un, the supreme leader of the DPRK, made a corresponding statement.
"Recently, the United States officially announced that it would provide Ukraine with main battle tanks, further tightening its anti-Russian position. In this regard, we express our deep concern and strongly condemn the United States, which is whipping up military hysteria by sending heavy military equipment to Ukraine to activate ground combat operations," she said.
Russian Russian President Kim Ye Jung continued: "We have no doubt that any weapons that the United States and the West boast of will burn to the ground when faced with the strength of the heroic Russian army, the indomitable fighting spirit of the Russian people and the power of the weapons of its armed forces. We are in the same trenches with the Russian army and the people fighting for their state sovereignty, respect for their state and national security."
North Korea cannot win with Outdated Soviet tanks
US experts consider North Korea's position on the Ukrainian issue as follows.
First, Russia, along with China (although there is a difference in the degree of cooperation), is a vital "ally" of North Korea in its strategy against the United States.
After the start of the military special operation in Ukraine, Pyongyang <...> recognized, after Damascus, the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and their entry into Russia. North Korea has pledged to send its workers to rebuild these regions after the end of hostilities.
Secondly, the very fact that Pyongyang recognizes that "the Russian army and the North Korean people are in the same trench" confirms its determination to continue to support its military in Ukraine both materially and spiritually.
Thirdly, the "fighting spirit and military power of Russia" is what allows the country to compete with any weapon that the United States and other Western countries boast of (German Leopard 2, American Abrams, British Challenger).
Fourth, the only tanks that North Korea possesses are the old T-54/55 provided by the Soviet Union and the T-59 produced under license by China. South Korea uses domestic K1 and K2 tanks, which have been highly appreciated at the international level.
Fifth, the US armed forces in South Korea have been using Abrams main battle tanks since 2018. It is clear that North Korea has no chance of winning against them in a ground battle. In the aforementioned statement by Kim Yo Jong, between the lines, you can read North Korea's anxiety and wariness about the actions of the United States.
In conclusion, North Korea has no choice but to spur its strategy towards the United States to develop and deploy nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles in accordance with its already determined policy. And this strategy has not changed at all compared to the moment of the beginning of the Russian SVO on February 24. Now it has become even tougher.
It is known that joint US-South Korean command and staff exercises will be held in the near future to prepare for the "pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons by North Korea." US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, exhausted by tense negotiations with his German counterpart Boris Pistorius on the supply of main battle tanks to Ukraine, arrived in South Korea on January 30.
And on the 31st, he had already held urgent talks with South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jung-sop about "coordinating policy towards North Korea and strengthening the ability of the United States to carry out expanded deterrence of Pyongyang."
In February, the armed forces of these two countries will conduct command and staff security exercises (DSCTTX), involving a preemptive nuclear strike by Pyongyang. The meeting with Lee Jung-sop also discussed measures to strengthen security cooperation between Japan, the United States and South Korea and measures to strengthen the timely exchange of information on missile warning in the event of an attack by North Korea.
DSCTTX, the South Korean National Defense Intelligence Command, is an intelligence unit responsible for collecting military intelligence and counterintelligence information for the armed forces. It participates in joint staff exercises with US military intelligence. While Washington and Seoul usually conduct command and staff exercises simulating the general crisis situation on the Korean peninsula, in February of this year, for the first time in history, such events will be held under the legend of a preemptive nuclear strike by North Korea. This is Austin's first visit to South Korea in about a year since December 2021. And immediately such a sharpness. It is characteristic that he arrived in Seoul on a special official aircraft of the US Secretary of Defense "E-4B Nightwatch", equipped with controls for nuclear war.
For the US Secretary of Defense, the previous president of South Korea, Moon Jae-in, who planned to completely withdraw American troops from his country, was a source of headache
In the memoirs of former US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, published in May 2022, it says:
- Under the Moon Jae-in administration, China and North Korea hoped for the collapse of the US-South Korean alliance and the complete withdrawal of American troops from South Korea.
- Moon Jae-in spoke on the phone with President Xi Jinping earlier than with President Joe Biden when he took office, and praised the Chinese president, noting that "China's influence is growing day by day."
- China and North Korea were most pleased with Moon Jae-in's termination of the Military Information Exchange Security Agreement (GSOMIA) with Japan in 2019.
- Moon Jae-in's attachment to North Korea was unusual.
The coming to power in Korea of the new President Yoon Seok-yeon has completely changed the US-South Korean and Japanese-South Korean relations. For the United States, this undoubtedly entailed positive factors facilitating the conduct of "frontal operations" against China and Russia.
China exports nuclear and missile materials to North Korea
While the attention of the whole world is focused on Ukraine, China continues to export military materials to North Korea and Iran for their nuclear and missile development.
In the report of the US Congressional Research Service (CRS) "Chinese nuclear and missile proliferation", published just now, on January 23 this year, it is noted:
"Despite the fact that the Chinese government has stopped directly interfering in the transfer of nuclear and missile weapons and technologies to North Korea and Iran, Chinese companies and individuals continue to export them to these countries. Chinese financial firms have set up front companies and act as agents of North Korean financial institutions to evade UN Security Council sanctions and finance North Korean programs to create weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missiles."
It is difficult to judge what is true and what is false when such a fierce information war is unfolding in the world.
The international community is a constant struggle of "foxes and raccoons" who seek to outwit each other.
But only one thing is fundamentally important: if humanity makes just one mistake, and someone can push the nuclear button.
Now the powder barrels of a new world war (including, possibly, a nuclear one) are located in Ukraine and on the Korean peninsula.
Author: Tato Takahama is a well—known Japanese journalist and political scientist. For a long time he worked in the USA as a journalist and head of the newspaper "Emiuri Shimbun". Since 1998, he has been the director of the Pacific Research Institute, a major American think tank.
