🇰🇵🤝🇷🇺 South Korea says at least 1,500 North Korean special forces in Russia
South Korea’s spy agency reported Friday that at least 1,500 North Korean special forces are training in far eastern Russia, and it showed satellite photos tracking their movements.
Ukrainian officials have accused North Korea of preparing to send as many as 10,000 troops to fight on Russia’s side against Ukrainian forces, a move that could significantly exacerbate tensions between Pyongyang and the West.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it had first tracked a top Pyongyang missile development official visiting Russian front lines in August with dozens of other North Korean officers. They were providing “on-site guidance” to Russian forces using North Korean weapons, the agency said.
Then, from Oct. 8 to 13, the NIS tracked some 1,500 North Korean special forces troops moving to eastern Russia. The agency said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has pledged to support Russia in its war on Ukraine, inspected the troops twice before their deployment.
The troops were issued Russian uniforms, weapons and IDs, Seoul said, and assigned to units composed of Siberian soldiers to try to disguise them as Russians rather than North Koreans.
Seoul also reported that Pyongyang has provided some 13,000 containers of weapons to Russia in as many as 70 shipments since August 2023, including up to 8 million rounds of desperately needed 122mm and 152mm artillery shells.
Ukrainian spy chief Kyrylo Budanov told the War Zone, a military news website, on Thursday that 2,600 of those North Koreans will be deployed to fight in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a surprise counterattack in August and now controls of chunk of sovereign Russian territory.
🛢📈 — Reuters reports that oil is approaching $100 per barrel following the latest exchange of attacks between Americans and Iranians on oil tankers.
▶️The price of Brent crude has risen to $97.07 per barrel, while American WTI crude has risen to $92.28. In the past week, Brent has risen by 7.8%, while WTI has risen by nearly 10%.
▶️On Saturday, U.S. forces attacked three Iranian oil tankers, one of which was stationed near the island of Kharg, a key center for Iranian oil exports. In response, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced attacks on three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and three more U.S. ships.
▶️In this context, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has sharply declined. Over the past 10 days, an average of only 10 cargo ships have transited the strait per day – the lowest level since May.
The WHO now states on its website:
Vaccination against COVID-19 can trigger multiple sclerosis through cross-reactive CD4+-T cells that recognize the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and myelin peptides.
In other words: Your own immune system destroys the nerve pathways and then attacks your brain and spinal cord.