US ready to back South Korea with nuclear weapons – Pentagon

Washington and Seoul have “an unequivocal nuclear based alliance,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said

The US is ready to support South Korea with both its nuclear and non-nuclear military capabilities, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated on Wednesday.

The statement comes as tensions on the Korean Peninsula are on the rise – and just before North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday.

Washington and Seoul will be ramping up their defense cooperation and large-scale military exercises, Austin said in a Pentagon press briefing Wednesday alongside South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun.

“I assured Minister Kim today that the United States remains fully committed to the defense of the ROK and our extended deterrence commitment remains ironclad,” Austin said. “That commitment is backed by the full range of America’s conventional missile defense, nuclear and advanced non-nuclear capabilities.”

He added that the US and South Korea will be returning “to large scale exercises” and “strengthening [their] combined readiness and our interoperability.”

North Korea has blamed Seoul and Washington’s combined military drills for the rising tensions in the region, as it views the exercises as rehearsals for a potential invasion. Earlier this month, Pyongyang destroyed roads and railways connecting the two Koreas, cutting potential ground routes into North Korea.

On Thursday, Seoul reported a possible ICBM launch by Pyongyang towards the East Sea. North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un confirmed that Pyongyang conducted an ICBM test in response to their adversaries’ “dangerous nuclear alliance.”

“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea affirms that it will never change its course of strengthening its nuclear arsenal,” state-run news agency KCNA cited Kim as saying. He stressed that the test was an “appropriate” response to “the enemies’ dangerous nuclear alliance-strengthening maneuvers and various adventurous military activities” threatening Pyongyang’s safety.

The US also accuses North Korea of aiding Russia in the Ukraine conflict. According to the Pentagon, Pyongyang has sent 10,000 troops to Russia for training and potential deployment against Kiev. Russian President Vladimir Putin has neither confirmed nor denied the claims made by Ukraine and its backers about the North Korean troops.

READ MORE: US claims 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia

Asked last week about the claims, he noted that Moscow and Pyongyang have signed a bilateral treaty which provides for military cooperation – and whether this entails more than joint drills and training is up to Russia and North Korea and no one else.

https://www.rt.com/news/606767-us-south-korea-nukes/

>>21870691

Russian parliament ratifies security treaty with North Korea

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin claimed this week that thousands of Pyongyang’s troops had arrived on Russian soil

The Russian State Duma, the lower chamber of the parliament, has ratified a bilateral treaty with North Korea which President Vladimir Putin signed during his visit to Pyongyang in June and submitted to the chamber earlier this month.

The agreement, which was approved on Thursday, outlines the comprehensive cooperation that the two countries intend to maintain, including on national security issues. Its provisions state that neither side will enter treaties with third parties that infringe on the other’s sovereignty. In the event of an attack on one of the nations, the other vows to provide support, including with military means, as allowed by the UN Charter.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko, who provided MPs with expert opinion about the document during the session, said it will bring relations with North Korea to a new level and contribute to “the creation of a just multipolar international system.”

“This treaty is open, it will be published, there are no secret points in it. Everything is written clearly,” he said.

The diplomat added that Moscow seeks to “curb increasing regional threats coming from the collective West led by the US, which is pursuing a course of preserving its hegemony and creating closed military-political alliances in the Asian Pacific.” Washington’s activities may result in the deployment of strategic nuclear weapons in the region, Rudenko warned.

There has been intense speculation this month that North Korea has sent thousands of troops to Russia for possible deployment in the Ukraine conflict. The allegations first came from Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who claimed Korean soldiers had been killed by Kiev’s forces.

Seoul’s NIS intelligence agency alleged last week that Pyongyang could provide as many as four brigades totaling 12,000 soldiers. US defense secretary Lloyd Austin claimed on Wednesday that some 3,000 troops had arrived on Russian soil from North Korea, warning that they would be “fair game” if sent to the front line.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week that statements from Kiev and its backers were contradictory. North Korea’s representative at the UN has said that his delegation “does not feel any need to comment on groundless and stereotype rumors” meant to smear his nation.

READ MORE: North Korea calls Ukrainians ‘lunatics’

North Korean diplomat Kim Yo-jong, who is the sister of the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has called officials in Ukraine and South Korea “lunatics” with a habit of threatening nuclear-armed neighbors, which she claimed was typical for “bad dogs bred by the US.”

https://www.rt.com/russia/606351-russia-north-korea-treaty/

>>21870704

North Korean troops would be ‘legitimate target’ – US

Washington believes that 3,000 North Korean soldiers have traveled to Russia for training, spokesman John Kirby has said

If North Korean soldiers enter the Ukraine conflict on Russia’s side, they will become “legitimate military targets” for Kiev’s forces, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has declared.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin claimed on Wednesday that there are currently an unknown number of North Korean servicemen in Russia, and that the Pentagon does not know “what exactly they’re doing.” Austin added that it would be a “very serious issue” if North Korea intended “to participate in this war on Russia’s behalf.”

In a briefing later on Wednesday afternoon, Kirby told reporters that “at least 3,000” North Korean soldiers entered eastern Russia earlier this month, and have since been dispatched to “multiple Russian training sites.”

Kirby said that the US does not know what kind of training these soldiers have supposedly received. However, he speculated that they “could travel to western Russia and then engage in combat against the Ukrainian military.”

“If these North Korean soldiers decide to join the fight against Ukraine, they will become legitimate military targets,” he added.

Pyongyang has dismissed claims that it sent troops to Russia as “groundless and stereotype rumors.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that cooperation between Russia and North Korea is “our sovereign right,” but that Moscow has seen “a lot of contradictory information” on the matter.

Rumors of the DPRK’s involvement in the conflict began earlier this month, when Ukrainian media outlets reported the deaths of North Korean troops in Donetsk Region. However, no evidence was given to back up these reports.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed two weeks later that North Korean “officers and technical staff” had been spotted near the front line, and that Pyongyang was planning to send 10,000 soldiers to take part in the conflict.

South Korea’s spy agency, the NIS, claimed last week that North Korea had sent 1,500 troops to Russia for training. These soldiers “are expected to be deployed to the front lines once their adaptation training is completed,” the agency added.

Russia and North Korea signed a landmark Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in June, during a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang. The agreement includes a pledge by Russia and North Korea to assist each other if either is “put in a state of war by an armed invasion.”

https://www.rt.com/news/606293-north-korean-legitimate-target/

Ukrainian army banned from using word ‘retreat’ – US-funded media

Kiev’s military insists on narrative over reality, a Radio Liberty reporter has complained

The Ukrainian military has forbidden its soldiers from using the word ‘retreat’ when speaking to the press, according to a reporter for Radio Liberty, a US government-funded outlet.

Vlasta Lazur is an employee of Radio Liberty’s Ukrainian-language service. In an interview with the Ukrainian broadcaster Radio NV on Wednesday, she revealed a troubling pattern in military communications.

“I spoke with a soldier on the Pokrovsk front. He said, ‘we received orders to use the words ‘offensive’, ‘victory’, ‘moving forward’, ‘driving out the enemy’ when communicating with journalists. But I can’t say the word ‘retreat’ or that the enemy has breached our defenses‘,” Lazur said.

“Maybe we should say that we are advancing on the Dnieper?” she quoted her source as saying. The river is to the rear of Ukrainian troops at Pokrovsk (also known as Krasnoarmeysk), a city in the Donetsk People’s Republic under Kiev’s control.

According to Lazur, even military spokespeople joke about the instructions they have been given. Moreover, the military units themselves do not communicate the real situation on the ground to the high command.

“Everyone lies to each other. Local commanders are afraid to report to generals or higher-ups any problems, or that they do not have enough people, or that they are not able to carry out a task. Even if such reports are founded in reality, they are afraid to send them, for fear of getting fired,” Lazur said.

Her revelations come a day after Vladimir Zelensky revealed that Ukrainian troops on the front line should “retreat” – his words – when outnumbered by the Russians eight to one.

Kiev has mobilized over a million people since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022, and intends to conscript another 160,000 in the next three months, Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksey Goncharenko said in the parliament on Tuesday. This “will allow us to staff military units with up to 85% personnel,” he said, citing Aleksandr Litvinenko, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.

Lawmakers have revealed other manpower issues, including over 100,000 desertions and the orders from the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, General Aleksandr Syrsky, to reassign air force personnel to infantry units.

Russian forces have made major advances in Donbass over the past several months. One Ukrainian general has blamed shortages of munitions, battle fatigue, and poor command and control.

https://www.rt.com/russia/606813-ukraine-retreat-ban-narrative/

>>21870736

>Silver and Gold?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mgQYcOfFUs

>>21870793

They Are Scrubbing the Internet Right Now

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