North Korea has sent troops to Russia, the United States said Wednesday, its first public confirmation of a move that has rattled Western allies and could mark a major escalation of Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

“There is evidence of DPRK troops in Russia,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters in Rome, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

“What exactly they’re doing is left to be seen,” Austin said, adding, “We’re trying to gain better fidelity on it.” It’s a “serious issue,” he said, if North Korea’s “intention is to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf.”

His comments came after South Korea and Ukraine sounded the alarm in recent days, sharing intelligence and voicing dissatisfaction with what they see as a lack of urgency in the response from the U.S. and other Western countries.

  • fluxion@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    13 days ago

    Asking for confirmation is perfectly fine.

    Suggesting this is like Iraq WMDs and that the US is so desperate to escalate things in Ukraine that they would fake a North Korean invasion of a European country… despite recently going out of their way to ban all partners from allowing Ukraine to even use long range weapons in Russia out of fear of escalation… is where i begin to question your thought process.

    • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      13 days ago

      My thought process is pretty simple.

      When we get to a point where we can view conflicts where the US has purposefully inserted themselves with a few years of hindsight or more, more often than not, we find out the public were deliberately misled about the reasons for US involvement.

      It would be one thing if it were a once-in-a-century aberration, but it’s certainly not. Our history is replete with lies about our involvement in war, so whenever I hear these bold claims from our government, it’s from a perspective of sobriety and skepticism rather than war fever.

      I’d like to see some tangible proof.