Two Minute Drill With Corey Stutte

In the Two Minute Drill, Corey Stutte shares his insights on some of the day's most important geopolitical issues. On today's agenda: how is it going for North Korean forces in Russia? And, is North Korea's involvement a true escalation?

Creators & Guests

Host
Dr. Corey Stutte
Political scientist tracking and teaching global conflict for Geopolitical Report and Hastings College.

What is Two Minute Drill With Corey Stutte?

In the Geopolitical Report Two Minute Drill, Corey Stutte shares his insights on some of the day's most important geopolitical issues.

Hi, Corey Stutte here back for another
Two Minute Drill, a pre-Christmas

two minute drill, actually.

And today we're going to spend a
little bit of time talking about

North Korea's involvement in Russia.

I've got a couple of questions and
the first one is, how's it going

for North Korean forces in Russia?

Well, it just so happens that the
South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff

came out and gave a figure of 1100
North Korean soldiers being killed or

wounded in Kursk Russia or Ukraine.

And that's a fairly high number
for the number of soldiers that we

think are actually deployed there.

So far, we believe that there
are about 11,000 North Korean

troops deployed in the theater.

So that's a rather significant
depletion rate for them.

And that should be concerning.

What's even more interesting now is that
the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff

also have come out and said that they
think that there might be a rotation

or further deployment of North Korean
troops into Russia and eventually into

help with the war against Ukraine.

So those numbers continue to go up
and they are also expecting more

rocket launchers and self-propelled
artillery shells to go along with any

sort of replenishment there, so North
Korea continues to be involved in the

fight in Russia, as well as Ukraine.

And that's certainly something
that we need to pay attention to.

Now this begs, the question is
North Korea's involvement, a true

escalation of the war in Ukraine?

And I think the simple answer is yes,
obviously Vladimir Putin is trying

to broaden the conflict and bring
in a third country to the fight.

He sees this as an opportunity to further
remove itself and distance itself.

From any sort of negotiations.

Now, there are some softening of stances,
both by Putin and Zelensky when it comes

to possible upcoming negotiations to come
to some sort of end to the war there.

But this is something that we're
going to need to pay attention to,

North Korea's involvement, as well
as the resupply and replenishment of

their artillery and rocket stocks.

So something that we'll
continue to pay attention to.

Well, that's all that I have for
you today on the two minute drill a

well, we're going to take a few days
off, so I wish you and your families.

A Merry Christmas and we will
see you on the other side.

I'd also encourage you to go out and
subscribe to the Geopolitical Report

Pro so that you get access to all
of the reports that we have on all

the issues from around the world.

Once again, merry Christmas
and we'll see you next time.