How many places of interest does Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, have? Not many, would be my guess – three generations of Kims are certain to have replaced any worthwhile architecture with typical communist monstrosities.
However, the current leader, Kim Jong Un, has just ordered the construction of an interesting monument that should have created a worldwide outcry – but hasn’t. The planned obelisk will commemorate North Korean soldiers fighting for Putin against the Ukraine.
This is the first official acknowledgement that regular troops of a foreign country are deployed in the Ukraine. Until recently, Korean soldiers espied in the battlefield were described as Buryats, Yakuts or other Mongolic Siberians, on the assumption that no one would know the difference.
Then, after several Koreans had either deserted to the Ukrainians or been taken prisoner, outright denials began to ring hollow. However, both Putin and Kim refused either to confirm such information or dismiss it outright.
Such subterfuge is no longer deemed necessary. The other day, the military committee of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) issued solemn praise of Korean soldiers who, “following the Leader’s orders, displayed mass heroism” killing Ukrainians.
North Korean troops were moved to Russia following last year’s agreement on a far-reaching strategic partnership. This is seen as a lucrative posting: those 10,000-12,000 soldiers are paid about $2,000 a month each, a king’s ransom by the standards of their starving country.
The agreement was worked out last autumn, when Putin and his foreign minister Lavrov met the North Korean foreign minister, while the Russian defence minister Belousov had a lengthy conference with his North Korean counterpart.
As a result, the Koreans promised to support their “Russian comrades”. Communism is dead, long live communism. And there I was, thinking that the Russians are no longer comrades but ladies and gentlemen.
These criminal comrades fighting side by side signify a new stage in the escalating aid from Kim to Putin. Until the deployment of an actual military contingent, North Korea had been bolstering Russian aggression with artillery shells, small-arms ammunition, self-propelled howitzers and missile systems. But eventually boots on the ground became necessary as well.
The North Korean troops include the ‘assault corps’, North Korean special forces. Though no better than average even by the modest standards of the Russian army, they’ve distinguished themselves by iron discipline and unquestioning obedience. I’m not surprised: they’ve been trained well. Any deficit of such qualities in North Korea constitutes a shortcut to a nameless grave.
The South Korean government is aghast about this “flagrant violation of international law, including the UN Charter. By acknowledging publicly the deployment, they mock the international community yet again.” The government of South Korea then demanded that Russia and North Korea stop their illicit military alliance that undermines “peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, including Europe.”
Kim dismissed such protests as a perfidious yet feeble attempt to undermine “the sacred mission of strengthening the traditional friendship and unity between Korea and Russia.”
One has to assume that this cherished tradition goes back to 1937, when the Soviets perpetrated the genocide of Koreans living in Russia. Over 172,000 of them were transported 4,000 miles from Siberia to Central Asia under the pretext of “stemming the infiltration of Japanese spies into the Far East”. (Apparently, the Soviets regarded Koreans and Japanese as identical twins.)
As a result of that mass deportation, over 50,000 Koreans died of starvation and neglect, in the spirit of “traditional friendship and unity”. Moreover, when Khrushchev denounced Stalin’s crimes in 1956, he didn’t list this genocide of Koreans among them. That little peccadillo was just par for the course, not even worth mentioning.
But hey, let bygones be bygones, shall we? Or, as the more robust Russian version of that proverb goes, “He who recalls the past, let his eye be poked out”. If Comrade Kim says the friendship and unity are sacred and traditional, so they are – and if you deny it… well, you know what will happen then.
The two evil regimes are joining forces to snuff out the light of freedom and civilisation that began to flicker in the Ukraine. These birds of a feather are red in beak and talon, and they are both aware of their profound kinship that goes beyond mutual strategic interests.
Just as the original Kim built his regime on the Stalin model, so is Putin steadily pushing Russia closer typologically to the totalitarian house that Kim Il-sung built. Yet what concerns me here isn’t this statement of the obvious, but the West’s reaction to the presence of foreign troops on Ukrainian battlefields.
When a Western leader, such as Macron, moots the remote possibility of sending a few NATO soldiers to the Ukraine, all hell breaks loose. No, Manny hastens to reassure the agitated world, not to kill Russians, God forbid. Just to act as a peace-keeping force, a sort of buffer keeping Russian dogs at bay – and still other presidents and prime ministers throw up their arms in horror.
We can’t do that! That would be provoking Putin and we all know he provokes easily, the sensitive soul that he is. When echoes of such shrieks reach Moscow, Putin or one of his henchmen helpfully remind the West that Russia has nuclear weapons. Push one button, and puff go the British Isles.
The erection of that obscene monument in Pyongyang is a perfect time to remind the Russians of another proverb: what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If those lovely allies Russia has can deploy troops on the battlefield, then the Ukraine’s allies are within their rights to do the same.
Except that there is a crucial difference. Russia’s totalitarian allies aren’t scared of helping her openly, while the Ukraine’s democratic allies are paralysed with fear whenever Putin looks at them askance. A trickle of weaponry, enough for the Ukraine to fight but not to win, is just about acceptable – and even that seems excessive to Vlad’s friend in DC. But sending troops over, now that would be an egregious provocation.
And it goes without saying that nothing Russia does can possibly provoke the West into a decisive response. We are thick-skinned that way. As a modern Russian classic wrote, “You can stand a foot in front of us and keep spitting into our snout for ten minutes, and we still won’t budge.”
For the same reason, our papers aren’t screaming in 50-point headlines about North Korean troops lending a helping hand to their fascist comrades. I bet they’d even stay silent if China sent, say, 100,000 troops to launch another assault on Kiev. We wouldn’t want to provoke either Putin or Xi.
What a sorry lot we are.