Free Republic

This is the moment a smug Vladimir Putin is taken down a peg by one of his top energy officials in a dispute during a tense discussion about Russia's Arctic infrastructure projects. Director General of Russia's state atomic energy corporation Rosatom Alexei Likhachev yesterday visited the Kremlin where he delivered a presentation about the company's performance and ongoing projects under Vladimir's steely gaze. After a lengthy speech in which he boasted of Rosatom's 24 per cent annual revenue growth and lauded the successes of the company's work to establish Russia as a major player in nuclear energy globally, the director...

North Korea claims more than a million young people have signed up to join or rejoin the army this week, state media reported, after accusing South Korea of sending propaganda drones to Pyongyang and blowing up border roads. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Wednesday that 1.4 million young people, including students and youth league officials, signed the petition to join the army. “Millions of young people have turned out in the nationwide struggle to wipe out the ROK scum who committed a serious provocation of violating the sovereignty of the DPRK through a drone infiltration,” KCNA...

Some 18 North Korean soldiers are believed to have deserted the Russian frontline, with Kremlin fighters reportedly searching for them. The troops were deployed in Russia's Kursk and Bryansk oblasts, about four miles from the border with Ukraine, when they deserted, the public broadcasting company of Ukraine, Suspilne, reported. Intelligence officials cited by the broadcaster said the Russian military is searching for the North Korean soldiers, while commanders are trying to conceal the desertion from their higher-ups. It comes after reports that Moscow was planning to assemble a battalion of troops sent over by Kim Jong Un to help push...

Russia is reportedly assembling a battalion of North Korean nationals to help push Ukraine's forces out of Kursk. -snip- In an apparent effort to remedy its waning forces, the North Korean soldiers will form a "special Buryat battalion," named after the Mongolic ethnic group, indigenous to the region spanning Siberia as well as northern Mongolia and China. -snip- The battalion is anticipated to comprise up to 3,000 North Korean soldiers and is currently being equipped with small arms and ammunition. This North Korean unit will complement the Buryat presence in the Russian army, currently one of the most overrepresented groups...

North Korea has warned that “war may break out any moment” after South Korea allegedly flew drones into Pyongyang - and it retaliated by destroying roads linking the countries. The stark warning came after the country’s foreign ministry claimed that South Korean drones carrying propaganda leaflets critical of leader Kim Jong-un had flown over the North Korean capital Pyongyang three times. They claimed that the drones carrying leaflets filled with “inflammatory rumours and rubbish” were flown over the city on October 3, 9 and 10. The North then blew up sections of road that, while not in use, are seen...

Iran’s new President, Masoud Pezeshkian, met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on October 11. The meeting is part of an Iranian charm offensive in recent years designed to cosy up to Moscow. This has also included practical initiatives that have had dangerous destabilising results. Iran has, for example, transferred its Shahed 136 drones to Russia and they have been used against Ukraine. The drones are the tip of the iceberg because Iran is also interested in other military-to-military relationships with Russia over ballistic missiles and other weaponry. While the Iranian trade in drones to Russia hss helped Moscow against...

Russia said on Tuesday that a treaty it signed with North Korea earlier this year provides for "strategic cooperation" in all areas, but declined to be drawn on how a mutual defence clause in the agreement could be put into practice. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the treaty with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when he visited Pyongyang in June, and said it included a mutual assistance clause under which each side agreed to help the other repel external aggression. Asked if this meant that Russia could be drawn into backing Pyongyang in a conflict on the Korean peninsula...

Russia said South Korea should refrain from “further provocations” in response to North Korea’s accusation that Seoul had sent unmanned drones across the border. The warning came as Moscow geared up to ratify a treaty on a strategic partnership with Pyongyang. North Korea said on Friday that the South had sent unmanned drones over Pyongyang three times this month. South Korea denied the claim. “The South Korean authorities should take Pyongyang’s warnings very seriously and cease further escalation on the peninsula through their reckless and provocative campaign, which exacerbates tension and could lead to actual armed confrontations,” Maria Zakharova, Russia’s...

South Korea’s military says it has fired warning shots near its heavily fortified border with the North after Pyongyang blew up sections of the deeply symbolic roads linking the two countries. At around midday, some parts of the road north of the military demarcation line (MDL) dividing the countries were blown up, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message sent to media on Tuesday. In response, Seoul’s military “conducted counter-fire” in areas south of the MDL, it added later. Since leader Kim Jong-un declared the South his country’s “principal enemy” earlier this year, the North has laid...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has formally requested that the State Duma ratify the treaty on comprehensive strategic partnership with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The treaty was signed during Putin's trip to Pyongyang in June and includes pledges by Russia and the DPRK to assist each other in case of foreign aggression. The Russian media reported on Monday that the ratification proposal had been registered in the legislature's docket. -snip- The document includes an article that states that "if one of the parties is subjected to an armed attack by any state or several states and thus finds itself...

Russia's Foreign Ministry accused South Korea on Monday of boosting tension in its relations with the Communist North and called for diplomacy in restoring calm and security on the Korean peninsula. -snip- Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on ministry website: "Such acts are a blatant encroachment on (North Korea's) sovereignty and internal affairs with the aim of destroying its legal state and political framework and denying it the right to its own development". -snip- Interfax news agency said Putin on Monday submitted to the State Duma lower house of parliament a text on ratifying a treaty on strategic partnership...