Creation: Political Economy Group of the Proletarian Liberation Struggle Association
Creation Date: October 25, 2024
Note: Since the North Korean official recently admitted their troop deployment actions, this past political commentary is issued for reference only
On October 18, 2024, according to the National Intelligence Service of South Korea: “It is understood that North Korea recently decided to dispatch four brigades of special forces, totaling 12,000 troops, to the Ukraine war.” This is North Korea’s first large-scale deployment of ground troops abroad. This troop deployment is a transaction made by Kim Jong-un to salvage his master Putin’s declining situation in the Russia-Ukraine war and to fill his own pockets. These North Korean “special forces” are all short in stature and frail in physique; they have no military uniforms of their own, only Russian uniforms; they lack combat command authority and can only follow Russian orders. North Korea is not sending an army but merely a group of cannon fodder.
In June 2024, Kim Jong-un and Putin signed the “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Treaty.” Although the military governments of North Korea and Russia strongly deny any transfer of North Korean soldiers to Russia, claiming it is “completely baseless,” “we have made no such requests to anyone, nor has anyone offered us.” However, the bodies of North Korean soldiers on the Ukraine battlefield, bloodied, are condemning their crimes to the world. Increasing reports indicate that North Korean soldiers have been deployed to Ukraine to assist Russian forces. The Ukrainian International News Agency and Kyiv Post, citing Ukrainian intelligence sources, reported that on October 3, Ukraine launched a missile attack on a training ground in the Russian-occupied Donbas region, killing six North Korean officers and injuring three. The bourgeoisie’s smooth-talking cannot hide the iron facts; they are desperately covering up even dirtier trades behind the scenes. According to sources cited by South Korean TV “North Korea Broadcasting” and the “US War Research Institute,” North Korea’s army has “ten engineering brigades, three or four of which can be deployed to Russia.” “North Korea Broadcasting” claims that Pyongyang can annually benefit up to $115 million from Moscow.
This is a contemporary state-level human trafficking!
Domestically, North Korean soldiers also live miserable lives. North Korea already suffers from food shortages, yet it must support 1.3 million active-duty soldiers and 7.6 million reservists, accounting for over 30% of the population. The military leaders in North Korea run huge farms, trading companies, fisheries, and mining enterprises to manage their armies, and these soldiers, who usually suffer brutal training, are now used as labor to farm, fish, or mine. Moreover, North Korea’s annual military expenditure reaches 25% of its GDP, imposing heavy chains on the working people. None of this military spending benefits the ordinary soldiers of the Korean People’s Army. The regime’s description—“blood and flesh forged into rifles and bombs”—clearly shows that these soldiers are merely consumables in their eyes.
In 2017, a North Korean soldier defected to South Korea and doctors found his intestines filled with parasites, some as long as 28 centimeters. In February 2023, according to South Korea’s Dong-A Ilbo, a high-ranking South Korean official revealed that North Korea recently reduced each soldier’s daily rations from 620 grams to 580 grams, while an adult male needs 250-300 grams of staple food per meal. North Korean soldiers desperately try to escape this brutal army; some defectors say that on the battlefield, it is easier for North Koreans to escape than in Siberian forests or Libyan deserts.
The Kim dynasty treats these soldiers as tools and disposable commodities, yet relies on this massive army to maintain its decayed rule. Since Kim Il-sung, the Kim dynasty has used this large force to purge opposition, from communists to ordinary workers. Today, these North Korean armies are nothing but forced laborers conscripted by the government, suffering heavy exploitation and oppression both outside and inside the military, and being sold as livestock on the international market. The root cause of all this lies in the Kim Jong-un comprador clique, backed by the Chinese and Russian imperialist groups and capitalist system, which uses the army to defend their interests. Ordinary soldiers suffering within the North Korean military can only change their lives by turning their guns against those who oppress and exploit them, thereby transforming their current miserable existence and saving North Korea from water and fire.
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】关于朝鲜的军事力量，我们所知道的 - 纽约时报中文网
【】https://www.sydneytoday.com/content-1024533783885003
【】https://m.thepaper.cn/kuaibao_detail.jsp?contid=4624323&from=kuaibao
【】脱北士兵体内发现数十条寄生虫 - 纽约时报中文网
【】https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/606737187
