Summary
North Korean troops sent to Russia to support its war in Ukraine remain sidelined due to poor training and logistical issues, according to Western officials.
These soldiers are expected to relieve Russian troops in secondary positions to free up forces for frontline battles in regions like Kursk, though they are unlikely to see combat in eastern Ukraine.
The war continues to take a massive toll, with over 700,000 Russian soldiers killed or wounded since February 2022, while both sides face challenges replacing losses.
Russia’s reliance on poorly trained recruits and prison conscripts highlights its growing manpower issues.
That’s what happens when you train for theatrics
Are you telling me there’s more to war than military parades?
Monkey bars. Lots of monkey bars.
Man there’s a lot of things I forgot about growing up in the 00’s, but “frantically talking heads beside 10-second looping footage of dudes on monkey bars in the middle of the desert” was definitely more a part of it than it should have been lol.
Of course. What about the razzle dazzle?
Also, probably malnourished. They may have gotten decent rations since they were conscripted (North Korea has a “military first” policy), but up until then they would have grown up with a calorie deficit.
Exactly, if you grow up with a calorie deficit , you don’t develop the way you should have. This is not something you can revert by suddenly eating decent food.
Just because they’re 4’6" and have bones the density of plywood doesn’t mean they can’t shoot right?
Meanwhile at the range- Holy shit his arm came right off!
My heart hurts for how tough it is for those people…
…but this made me laugh out loud more than I care to admit lmao.
Can you actually grow up with a calorie deficit? That term means burning more calories in the day than you take in. You can’t do that your whole life.
I’m no expert, but i suppose there isn’t really much grow when growing up with a deficit.
Calorie deprivation on the other hand…
I guess I’m bringing my own associations to it. I’ve dieted for weight loss where deficit meant intake versus burn. But I guess there’s no reason deficit couldn’t also mean intake versus healthy required amount.
They’re not NK soldiers.
NK is still at war with the south, they’re not sending any troops there, just inmates of prison camps.
They’re poorly trained by Russian standards? That’s impressively bad!
Came here to say that.
More poorly trained than a convict 2 weeks out of prison? Doesn’t seem possible…
There’s probably a base level of competence someone who grew up in modern society has without training that the North Koreans don’t have.
Like even if a convict has never operated a drone, there’s probably a good amount of them that have played FPS games. That experience can be used as a launching board into proper training.
Meanwhile the North Koreans might have absolutely zero experience with video games and smartphones, and extremely limited experience with computers in general. There’s so much you’d have to teach them before you can even start drone training.
Unfit for battle probably means starving
North Korea has smartphones. Now idk if the sort of people they send to die in Ukraine have ever used one, but they do have them, and apparently they’re awful
NK has developed an entire cybercrime network even
Yeah but that’s like saying the US build nuclear reactors.
You and your buddies sure don’t.
Doesn’t NK have nukes too
I don’t think so. They’ve gone on about it a lot and supposedly could have the ability but I don’t think they’ve ever done a successful launch or detonation of a nuclear weapon.
I feel like tv and movies do more than we think for giving a base-layer of military training. I’m not saying it’s LIKE military training, but people have at least seen what they’re going to do before training
Training people can be harder when the trainees have to unlearn bad habits or knowledge. Ask anyone who has tutored previously self-taught students an artform or craft.
In some ways, media exposure can help to introduce broad concepts, and sometimes there are excellent examples in media (My Cousin Vinny and Legally Blonde have been used in some US law school course curriculum to show how the parts of the judicial system are supposed to operate, iirc), but oftentimes preconceived notions can hinder training for the real thing.
Who knew practicing to be a Rockette wouldn’t prepare you for combat lmao.
Bro I don’t think you understand the real power of dance
What about the Power of Friendship?
“Turns out the real Great Leader was the best friend we made along the way.”
They’re busy gooning
Who can blame them
They discovered Porn when they got to Russia and have been chronically exhausted ever since…
Developed huge muscles in one arm
Prefect for grenade throwing.
more like rock throwing. I doubt they have many grenades left. the drones keep stealing them.
And no matter how hard they try, they can’t fire off more than a dozen shots per day.
They do love their missile parades…
Imagine the Russian commander’s surprise when he realized North Koreans don’t know anything about StarCraft!
I thought they had already been getting killed fighting in Ukraine? I haven’t followed the news too closely recently though so I’m probably wrong, just seen some headlines around the place.
IIRC the NK soldiers have been fighting (and dying) in the Ukrainian occupied parts of Russia, and haven’t been deployed to the Russian occupied parts of Ukraine yet.
Yet the article clearly states that they haven’t fought yet? Which is it?
Fog of war and all, so I’m guessing no one knows, but here’s my take: This is more recent so it’s probably more true that they haven’t actually been fighting yet. IIRC those rumors before of them fighting has only been coming from South Korea and Ukraine. Ukraine, while I support them, clearly has a biased motivation to seem as outnumbered and out-gunned as possible to express a need to their allied nations to give them more weapons, and even to try to get them to join the war themselves. South Korea’s bias is pretty obvious. Neither offered much physical evidence except I think a flag they found.
The US is also biased, but are a step removed, so I believe their intelligence on this topic more than either of those two until we get something even more recent and clear. Also it’s hilarious to me imagining them being worse than Russian convicts lol.
clearly has a biased motivation to seem as outnumbered and out-gunned as possible to express a need to their allied nations to give them more weapons,
Hey this is the same tactic my state’s school system uses to beg for funding. “We’re the 69th worst state for education in the country! :(” lol
The people who were clamoring about North Korean soldiers getting absolutely slaughtered by Ukraine are the same people who repost stories about North Koreans getting executed for not having Kim’s haircut. In the same breath, they’ll cast North Korea as an ultra-propagandized state, and then quote a Radio Free Asia article about how North Koreans are getting bombed out the ass by the Ghost of Kiev.
It’s literally happening in this thread’s comment section. Instead of reconciling how they’ve been duped for the past months about North Korean soldiers fighting in Ukraine, they’ve dug in deeper and started to parrot points about “North Koreans got addicted to masturbation once they reached Russia” - a point which the pentagon has emphatically claimed as unverified and possibly unverifiable. Absolutely no introspection from these people after having been duped by Ukraine’s bonkers “intelligence”.
These people never asked themselves “Huh, why is it that for the last few months I’ve been able to attain 1080p drone footage of Russian soldiers getting grenaded - with so much clarity I can make out the stubble on their faces - yet there has not been a single image of a North Korean casualty?” Whatever Radio Free Asia says is gospel to these people, I suppose.
I had thought so too. Apparently there have been a bunch of false reports on them being involved in fighting. Which makes sense, because their involvement in this conflict was entirely political theater to begin with - they were sent over to try and scare the western allies into backing down or else risk a wider global conflict. USA and others called their bluff and the NK soldiers have been sitting in Russia ever since. They can’t fight and they almost certainly don’t speak any Russian or have enough translators to be an effective assault force in a combat scenario.
Must be a fucking wird ride for these soldiers. First porn and now learning that you actually have been fucked by your own government by not even training you the way you are supposed to be trained.
Porn?
Yah, the rumor is that the north Koreans got ahold of cellphones with open web access for the first time in their life. So they immediately started watching all the porn and jacking themselves raw.
Never seen the internet in your life. 25 year old male. What’s the first thing you look for?
Images -> “큰 가슴”
Disclaimer-
“Big boobies” I don’t know Korean, and therefore blame google translate if this ends up nonsensical and/or offensive lol.
Supposedly, once they got across the border and got access to Russian smart phones, they quickly discovered porn. There were several reports (though TBF, they could have been propaganda), that the NK soldiers kept getting caught masturbating by the Russians they were working alongside, and some were incapacitated due to the fact that they had masturbation-related injuries. Like the NK soldiers just used every single opportunity to whip out their new phones and beat their meat until it was bloody.
I’m kinda glad I was on a 28.8k modem when I was a kid so we had to watch the naked girls come through line by line.
Saw crazy porn on VHS at 13 though and definitely beat it til it bled.
This definitely feels like comedically outlandish propaganda. (Which often attempts to portray opposition as a bunch of dumb backwards animals with only the basest intelligence)
…but especially given their belligerent status…it’s still hilarious. 😂
Never stopped him before
Well yeah, when they’re just cranking the hog and eating food for the first time, what did they expect?
if I was a russian oligarch you couldn’t pay me enough money to admit this.
i’ll bet they get issued like 10 rounds each for those giant helical mags
IIRC from earlier reading, Russia was issuing them Russian rifles for the conflict.
I don’t think that the thumbnail is from the current deployment.
It would be… something if the NK troops fucked up and killed a bunch of Russians with friendly fire. The Russians would slaughter them to a man in anger. And then… 🍿
