PrairiePundit

 Wall Street Journal: How North Korea Cheated Its Way to Crypto Billions More than $6 billion from heists highlights the sophistication of cyber operations funneling cash to Kim Jong Un’s nuclear program It is unlikely that Kim Jong Un will ever be extradited for his crimes, but sanctions against this regime should stay in place, 

 Independent: A former North Korean sergeant has said Pyongyang troops fighting in Ukraine were told their families would be executed if they are captured alive. "If the soldiers are captured and tell information to the enemy, their families will be punished, go to a political prison camp, or worse, they will be executed in front of the people," North Korean defector and researcher, Pak Yusung, told ABC News. Ryu Seong-hyeon, who defected to South Korea in 2019, said few North Korean soldiers had been captured as a result. "Most soldiers will kill themselves before they're killed by the enemy, it's the biggest shame to be captured," Mr Seong-hyeon told ABC News . South Korean intelligence echoed this, claiming that North Korea ordered troops to kill themselves to avoid being captured alive. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent more than 11,000 soldiers to join Russian troops in November last year as Moscow’s casualties continue to mount. ... It is hard...

 DC Daily Journal: ... A new wave of North Korean soldiers has reportedly joined the conflict in Ukraine as part of Russia’s ongoing war effort, marking an escalation in the already complex situation. The deployment comes as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration intensifies its diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the prolonged war, which has caused devastating loss of life and destruction across the region. According to the Associated Press, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) revealed that North Korea has sent between 1,000 and 3,000 additional soldiers to the Kursk region of Russia between January and February 2025. This marks a significant increase in North Korea’s involvement in the war, which began in October 2024 when the regime initially deployed 1,500 special forces soldiers and 10,000 regular troops to support Russian forces. The Pentagon has acknowledged these reports but has not confirmed the deployment of these soldiers, stating that it has not se...

 Business Insider: Russia is relying so heavily on North Korea that it's getting 50% of its ammo from Pyongyang, Ukraine's spy chief says ... Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv, Budanov said Pyongyang was also providing Russia with 155mm self-propelled howitzers and multiple-launch rocket systems. He has previously said that these were the M1989 "Koksan" howitzer and the M1991 system. Over the last year, North Korea has increasingly dedicated resources to help Russia sustain its war against Ukraine. It deployed an estimated 11,000 to 12,000 troops in Kursk late last year. Pyongyang's involvement comes as Moscow and Kyiv focus on outlasting each other along the largely stagnant front lines and as Russia digs deep into its economy to maintain recruitment and weapons production. North Korea isn't giving its resources away for free. Its leader, Kim Jong Un, is reported by South Korean intelligence to be receiving technological assistance from Russian experts,...

 The Federalist Wire: ... North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un marked the anniversary of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) with a scathing denunciation of the United States, blaming Washington for global conflicts and pledging to expand his country’s nuclear capabilities. Speaking during a visit to North Korea’s Defense Ministry, Kim accused America of being the driving force behind international crises and insisted his regime would bolster its military power in response. His remarks, reported by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), were his first extended comments on the United States since President Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term. The regime, which controls all information available to its citizens, confirmed Trump’s inauguration without ever acknowledging the election and had largely remained silent until earlier this month, when state media lashed out at Secretary of State Marco Rubio for calling North Korea a “rogue state.” Kim’s speech painted the United St...

 The Standard: North Korean troops so 'poorly trained' that Putin army yet to throw them into battle, say western officials ... The North Korean troops are expected to take up secondary positions currently held by Russian soldiers so more of the latter can be deployed for frontline attacks. The Western officials doubt that the DPRK soldiers will be deployed into eastern Ukraine where the vast bulk of the fighting is taking place. ... I think it is telling that Russia even needs North Korean troops.  Russia thought its war with Ukraine would be over in a matter of days, but Ukraine has been a much tougher target than Putin anticipated.  See also: Putin's Ukraine drone barrages are increasingly backfiring on his closest ally And:  Ukraine blinds Russian target seekers with drone-on-drone combat And:   Opinion - Putin’s overseas empire is collapsing all at once — don’t let up on him now

 ISW: The Kremlin is likely leveraging the recent June 2024 Russia-North Korea comprehensive strategic partnership agreement in part to offset Russian force generation and border security requirements—further cementing Russian President Vladimir Putin's commitment to avoiding mobilization for as long as possible. Ukrainian outlets Suspilne and Liga reported on October 15, citing anonymous military intelligence sources, that the Russian 11th Airborne (VDV) Brigade is forming a 3,000-person “battalion” staffed by North Korean citizens (the numerical strength is far beyond a battalion’s).[1] Ukrainian intelligence sources assessed that the “battalion” will likely be involved in ongoing Russian defensive operations in Kursk Oblast and reported that up to 18 North Korean soldiers have already deserted their positions in Bryansk and Kursk oblasts before the unit has been committed to combat operations.[2] ISW cannot independently confirm the veracity of these reports, but Russian officia...

 AP: A veto Thursday by Russia ended monitoring of U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program , prompting Western accusations that Moscow is seeking to avoid scrutiny as it allegedly violates the sanctions to buy weapons from Pyongyang for its war in Ukraine. Russia’s turnaround on the U.N. monitoring reflects how Moscow’s growing animosity with the U.S. and its Western allies since the start of the Ukraine war has made it difficult to reach consensus on even issues where there has been longstanding agreement. The veto came during a vote on a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have extended the mandate of a panel of experts monitoring sanctions on North Korea for a year, but which will now halt its operation when its current mandate expires at the end of April. The vote in the 15-member council, with 13 in favor, Russia against, and China abstaining, has no impact on the actual sanctions against North Korea, which remain in force. Russia had never before t...

 Yahoo News: US promises to punish North Korea and Iran for helping Russia with ballistic missiles It says something about the decline of Russia that it is having to rely on second-rate powers for its failing war efforts in Ukraine. 

 Business Insider: Low-quality shells supplied to Russia by North Korea are injuring its own troops and damaging artillery, Ukraine says Both sides in the Russia-Ukraine war have expended most of their inventory of artillery shells.  North Korea is selling some of its inventory to Russia including some defective munitions. 

 AP: Thousands of information technology workers contracting with U.S. companies have for years secretly sent millions of dollars of their wages to North Korea for use in its ballistic missile program, FBI and Department of Justice officials said. The Justice Department said Wednesday that IT workers dispatched and contracted by North Korea to work remotely with companies in St. Louis and elsewhere in the U.S. have been using false identities to get the jobs. The money they earned was funneled to the North Korean weapons program, FBI leaders said at a news conference in St. Louis. Federal authorities announced the seizure of $1.5 million and 17 domain names as part of the investigation, which is ongoing. Jay Greenberg, special agent in charge of the St. Louis FBI office, said any company that hired freelance IT workers “more than likely” hired someone participating in the scheme. An FBI spokeswoman said Thursday that the North Koreans contracted with companies across the U.S. and i...

 Fox News: A North Korean defector issued a stark warning Monday on "woke" ideology in American classrooms, believing the U.S. could "absolutely" be headed down the path of her home rogue regime if it doesn't reverse course. Author Yeonmi Park joined "Fox & Friends First" to discuss the parallels between far-left indoctrination within her Ivy League education at Columbia University and "brainwashing" in North Korea. "The things that I was learning at Columbia University really shocked me because it was the exact same thing that my North Korean teachers were brainwashing me in the classroom," Park told Todd Piro . "At Columbia University they were literally saying that all the problems that we have is because of capitalism, because of white men, and the solution for all these problems is a communist revolution in the name of equity." "They were saying that we need to destroy this country, and we need to rebuild th...

 Insider: This 'Top Gun' shot down 4 soviet jets in 30 minutes and kept it a secret for 50 years. He was just awarded the Navy Cross. Royce Williams was awarded one of the highest awards for combat valor in the United States military on Friday for a mission that had been classified for more than 50 years, several outlets reported. In 1952, Williams was a lieutenant Navy Pilot during the Korean war, NBC 7 reported. Operating an F9F Panther – the Navy's first jet fighter, Williams and three other aviators were sent on a combat air patrol in the Sea of Japan, about 100 miles off the North Korean coast, CNN reported. The group came across seven Soviet jets heading toward them. "They just didn't come out of Russia and engage us in any way before," Williams said in a 2021 interview with the American Veterans Center. The group began to shoot at the soviet jets but after a while, Williams noticed that he was the only American left and he took on the soviet jets alon...

 Washington Examiner: A new U.S.  Space Force  unit has been activated in  South Korea , where U.S. forces seek an enhanced ability to detect ballistic missile launches and other threats. “Just 48 miles north of us exists an existential threat, a threat that we must be prepared to deter, defend against, and, if required, defeat,” Lt. Col. Joshua McCullion, the inaugural commander of U.S. Space Forces-Korea,  said  Wednesday. McCullion’s unit will provide “in-theater near-real-time detection and warning of ballistic missile launches,” according to the United States Forces Korea. The unit has formed against a backdrop of U.S. and allied unease about  North Korea ’s burgeoning missile program, exacerbated by a marked absence of cooperation on the issue between the United States,  Russia , and  China . ... There is some concern that Russia and China are using the Norks to test their own devices that threaten the US.   

 NY Times: Russia is buying artillery from North Korea, according to U.S. intelligence. I think this speaks to the effectiveness of Ukraine's resistance.  I suspect the US HIMARS are having an impact on Russia's ammo supply too.    

 Reuters: The nosedive in cryptocurrency markets has wiped out millions of dollars in funds stolen by North Korean hackers, four digital investigators say, threatening a key source of funding for the sanctions-stricken country and its weapons programmes. North Korea has poured resources into stealing cryptocurrencies in recent years, making it a potent hacking threat and leading to one of the largest cryptocurrency heists on record in March, in which almost $615 million was stolen, according to the U.S. Treasury. The sudden plunge in crypto values, which started in May amid a broader economic slowdown, complicates Pyongyang's ability to cash in on that and other heists, and may affect how it plans to fund its weapons programmes, two South Korean government sources said. The sources declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. It comes as North Korea tests a record number of missiles - which the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul estimates have cost as m...

  Daily Mail: US hacker 'in his pyjamas' takes down North Korea's internet in revenge for cyber attack carried out against him by Pyongyang This might make an interesting movie. 

  Washington Examiner: North Korea tells starving citizens to eat less: Report The Norks must have take a cue from the Washington Post which has been telling Americans to lower expectations since Biden's election. 

  Legal Insurrection: UN Report: Iran, North Korea “Resuming” Long-Range Missile Cooperation “The UN panel received information showing that Iran’s Shahid Haj Ali Movahed Research Center received ‘support and assistance’ from North Korean missile specialists for a space launch vehicle, and that North Korea was involved in certain shipments to Iran.” The world is a less safe place with a Democrat in the White House and our adversaries know it.  What is the Biden administration doing about this?  If they are doing anything they are not do it out in the open.