This comes at an incredible cost. Russia’s suffering an estimated 1,200 casualties per day — more than 600,000 since February 2022. And unable to face the political costs of mass conscription, Putin has now opted to draft soldiers from North Korea too.
This dangerous expansion of the conflict escalates the war and demonstrates that our security is not regional, it is global.
Putin certainly isn’t getting this support for free. The Russian president is propping up Kim Jong Un’s cash-strapped regime in return, providing Pyongyang with military technology that its dictator will use to threaten neighbors, adding to the Korean Peninsula’s instability.
Furthermore, the North Koreans, who haven’t fought a war in over 70 years, will now gain valuable battlefield experience and insight into modern conflict. Just last week, the country conducted its longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile test — its first in a year — in yet another breach of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.
These deepening military and economic ties between a reckless Russia and an emboldened North Korea don’t just threaten Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific security, they are deeply dangerous for global security.
China bears particular responsibility here, to use its influence in Pyongyang and Moscow to ensure they cease these actions. Beijing cannot pretend to promote peace while turning a blind eye to increasing aggression.
