The News
North Korea said it had recruited more than a million young people to join the state army this week, according to state media, which is now portraying a potential war against South Korea as “sacred.”
It is the latest escalation in tensions between the two neighboring nations after Kim Jong Un, the North’s leader, blew up a road near the southern border and threatened to cut all ties with Seoul in retaliation for allegedly scattering leaflets over Pyongyang using drones.
Meanwhile, Kyiv said Wednesday that North Korea has sent weapons and troops to aid Russia’s war against Ukraine, an indication of the strength of the North’s international ties and an apparent opportunity for it to gain battlefield experience.
SIGNALS
North Korea increasingly evading sanctions with Russia’s help
North Korea’s alignment with Russia and China is putting a spotlight on the apparent limits of the United Nations’ power to curb its military ambitions. By sending weapons and, according to Kyiv, even soldiers to Russia, North Korea’s partnership with Moscow brings in much needed income, and also allows the regime to gain battlefield experience, analysts say. The White House has previously warned that Russia could keep North Korea “in business for years,” helping it distribute arms all over the world. Russia backed the abolition of a UN team that oversaw sanctions on North Korea, and while other multinational monitors may be effective, an international legal analyst told Reuters they would likely “lack the international legitimacy” of the UN.
Koreas drift further apart as risk of war heightens
Analysts warn that the risk of war between North and South Korea is “higher than ever.” Earlier this year, North Korea abolished offices that work on improving ties with the South and removed references to reunification its media guidelines: “The North has faced self-contradiction when it threatened to level and use its nuclear weapons against fellow countrymen,” an analyst told The New York Times. “That contradiction is removed when the North… defines the South as an enemy state,” he added. Beyond the peninsula, there is an additional risk of a coordinated two-front war in Asia, the Atlantic Council wrote recently, with North Korea targeting the South and China targeting Taiwan — ignoring such a possibility may be “sleepwalking toward Armageddon,” Foreign Policy argued.