North Korea intervenes in Ukraine: there is a risk of the war expanding

analysis

In Germany and among NATO partners there is now a fight for every additional euro for Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia and its partners are creating facts: Apparently 12,000 soldiers from North Korea are to be deployed in the war against Ukraine, some of them elite units of ruler Kim Jong-un. On Wednesday, NATO said it had “evidence” that North Korean soldiers were already training in Russia. Now there are growing concerns about an expansion of the conflict, and the word “world war” is also being used.

The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael Roth (SPD), says so star “The deployment of North Korean soldiers is a clear sign of Russia’s weakness and at the same time a dangerous escalation that is increasingly internationalizing the war.” Russia is suffering from massive supply problems for weapons, ammunition and soldiers. “Without the help of his dictator friends from North Korea, China and Iran, Putin can no longer wage his war against Ukraine, which violates international law,” says Roth.

North Korea’s soldiers could solve Russia’s problems

CDU foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter expressed similar concerns. “Russia is once again showing that it is not isolated in the world. This is a dramatic sign for the West.” In his view, the participation of North Korean soldiers would be an open entry into war by the country. North Korea trains its own troops and their skills. “Russia is solving its own recruitment problem because the North Koreans are now fighting for them – how effective remains to be seen,” adds Kiesewetter.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj is now warning of a third world war and is also talking about a new warring party. US Secretary of State Lloyd Austin spoke of a “very, very serious problem” if North Korea really intervened in the fighting. The Foreign Office summoned the North Korean business representative to Berlin.

There has long been speculation about North Korea’s extensive arms deliveries to Russia. In June, Vladimir Putin and Kim Yong-un signed a so-called security partnership and pledged support in the event of an attack. Putin now justifies the possible deployment of the soldiers in exactly this way: with the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the Kursk region. Without the support of China, the operation would hardly be possible.

Kiesewetter and Roth are calling for toughness instead of appeasement

Kiesewetter and Roth are calling for a tough reaction from the West in order to prevent the war from spreading. “The West must finally combine diplomacy and toughness, and therefore financially and militarily ‘all in’ support Ukraine,” says Kiesewetter star. “To do this, Germany must finally deliver Taurus cruise missiles and abandon range restrictions so that Ukraine can attack military targets deeper in Russia.”

In addition, a “coalition of the willing,” as Kiesewetter calls it, should take over anti-aircraft defense over western Ukraine. This could free up capacities for the defense of eastern Ukraine. The CDU foreign politician even goes one step further: “The use of soldiers from partner countries for training and repairs must no longer be ruled out. The federal government must no longer block this,” he said.

The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the German Bundestag, Michael Roth, is also calling for a consistent response. “Strongly condemn North Korea’s involvement, tighten sanctions, rigorously combat sanctions evasion by countries like China, expand military support for Ukraine – possibly with the help of South Korea – and finally allow Ukraine to use long-range Western weapons systems against military targets in Russia,” says the SPD politician dem star. This also increases the pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz (also SPD).

The fear of a world war is understandable – but concern and reassurance do not prevent escalation.

He continues to rely on prudence. That’s what the SPD strategists call it. Scholz recently rejected calls for the delivery of the German Taurus medium-range missile at the EU summit a week ago. “I don’t think that’s a correct delivery – and it stays that way,” said the SPD politician in Brussels. He also believes that NATO membership for Ukraine is the wrong path. Scholz justified this with his concern that the war between Russia and Ukraine would expand into a war between Russia and NATO.

CDU foreign policy expert Kiesewetter shares the concerns about escalation, even Zelensky’s concerns about a world war. “The fear of a world war is understandable – but concern and reassurance do not prevent escalation,” says Kiesewetter star. Instead, Europe must respond with strength and deterrence. “Germany can say as often as it wants that we don’t want to be a party to the war if Russia sees us as a war target. Putin says that quite openly.”

Russia has seen Germany as a war target since 2019

Recently, the President of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), Bruno Kahl, also had clear words in the German Bundestag. “We are in a direct confrontation with Russia,” Kahl said at a parliamentary hearing. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not just concerned with Ukraine, but “in reality with the creation of a new world order.”

CDU man Kiesewetter adds that Germany has been a war target for Russia since 2019 at the latest, through targeted murders like in the Tiergarten, arson attacks, sabotage and espionage. “Russia is testing how long it can use this covert form of warfare against us without us really reacting.” With the possible deployment of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is now testing the entire NATO.