South Korean media claimed on Monday that Seoul could send military and intelligence personnel to Ukraine after the North dispatched troops to support Russia in the war.

A report said the government and military of South Korea “are reviewing a plan to send an appropriate number of personnel, including intelligence officers [specialized in North Korea] and experts in enemy tactics,” to Ukraine, citing a South Korean intelligence official.

South Korean personnel in Ukraine would interrogate or provide interpretation services if North Korean soldiers were captured by Ukrainian forces, the report said. They would also provide Kyiv with information about the North’s military tactics, doctrine, and operations.

  • Saleh@feddit.org
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    1 month ago

    This has to be the most bizzare proxy war, i have ever heard about.

    Two countries with a shared culltural history to go to join a war on the other side of the world, as not to fight in their demilitarized border zone. But unlike in “normal” proxy wars, they both send soldiers.

    • remotelove
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      1 month ago

      Unfortunately, all it will take is one of the Korean groups to be responsible for destroying another Korean group in Ukraine for any retaliation to make it’s way back to the homeland.

      Hell, the story doesn’t even need to be real for one of the Korean governments to start lobbing shells over their border.

      Honestly, I think this is the plan. It was super weird for NK to actually blow up roads on the border. With that, combined with the timing of them sending troops to Ukraine is even more sus. This probably has more to do with US elections, than anything else.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        1 month ago

        The bridges weren’t in use anyway. Why spend money maintaining infrastructure that could likely only aid your enemy? I don’t think they’re related. NK doesn’t want a war with the south. They’d lose, unless China defends them and then does the US get involved?

        • Ham Strokers Ejacula@reddthat.com
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          1 month ago

          The US has a gigantic presence in SK, like huge. There’s probably a dozen bases I’d guess. If China attacks they are 100% ready to respond to that, and already have tons of contingency plans in place, and exercise them regularly.

        • bluewing@lemm.ee
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          30 days ago

          China WILL defend NK just as they did in the 1950’s. China has no desire to see US influence anywhere near what they consider “their territories” and sphere of influence.

          At which point the US WILL get involved and we are off the race to Armageddon. []https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pklr0UD9eSo

        • humanspiral
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          29 days ago

          NK has a bigger army, and sure to receive support from neighbours. US has logistical issues in providing support. DPRK blowing up bridges does mean not seeking to use them for their own invasion, so on that point, you are right.

      • Vilian
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        1 month ago

        The retaliation that north Korea could do was to give up trying to be a country and south Korea is forced to take care of that amount of refugees lol

        • LoganNineFingers
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          1 month ago

          In 2011 SK started a tax for a reunification fund in the event that they absorb a bunch of NK refugees at some point.

          • Vilian
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            30 days ago

            OK, and that would not make things easier, just less catastrophic

    • arandomthought@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      I wanted to nitpick on the “other side of the world” part and tell you that NK actually shares a border with Russia. But you’re actually right, Russia is just that massive that its border with Ukraine might as well be on the other side of the earth.

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        1 month ago

        Pyongyang - Kyiv is 7.700 km. So technically it is only about 1/6 around the earth. From a western European perspective the distances to the west are distorted to be shorter and to the east to be longer. In the perception in my country (Germany) Kyiv moved a lot closer in the past 10 years or so.

        I was surprised the other day when i looked it up. Berlin Moscow is about 1.600 km. Berlin Madrid is about 1.800 km.

        • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          This dumb American is all for moving to the same units as the rest of the world. I would even agree to reordering the way we write dates. But not using a . where a comma belongs is a hill I will die on.

          • Rinox@feddit.it
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            1 month ago

            Depends on the conventions used in your country, there’s no real reason for using a comma instead of a dot, or vice versa.

            In Italy this is a decimal number: 3,45 and this is a big number: 6’000’870

            Every country has its own convention

            • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
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              28 days ago

              The second one is fine. And even 3,45 isn’t terrible, unless there are three digits after the comma. Then it is just wrong… in my opinion of course

          • Saleh@feddit.org
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            1 month ago

            I didnt think about that. Because of programming stuff i mostly use a decimal dot, but still end up using the . as 1,000 partitioner too.

          • iLStrix@lemmy.world
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            30 days ago

            I’m obviously biased since I grew up with this “9,81” being a decimal, but in my head just thinking about it, it also makes sense. As you can see in these sentences, a comma is a break in a sentence, while a dot ends a sentence. Then again, math gets really messy when you have horizontal vectors with decimal numbers in-between, so maybe the dot is actually better idk. Eg: (2,3 , 4,5 , 3,7)

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            1 month ago

            They were involved in the Spanish Civil War before the war. It was similar to Ukraine in that it became a proxy war for nations to test out new equipment and doctrines, although they also sent soldiers who got field experience.

          • Saleh@feddit.org
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            1 month ago

            I would think he was always welcome there, given that he helped Franco rise to power

        • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          It’s also worth mentioning that the Russian/Korean border is tucked into the farthest corner of China’s border. So any travel from the DPRK to places like Moscow or Ukraine is a pretty long, circuitous route.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      I’ve previously said that the conflict is a proxy war between NK and SK, with Russia being NK’s proxy, just to trigger vatniks. I feel vindicated.