The Pentagon has said they are unable to verify whether North Korean troops are ‘gorging themselves on porn’ after being enlisted to fight in Ukraine.
A shocking report by Financial Times columnist Gideon Rachman revealed this week that Kim Jong Un‘s troops were watching adult content in their barracks having never enjoyed such unrestricted access to the web.
However, US Department of Defense spokesperson Major Charlie Dietz said he was unable to verify ‘any North Korean internet habits or virtual ”extracurriculars” in Russia‘.
He added that the Pentagon is only concerned with the ‘more serious’ aspects of the North Korean military’s relationship with Russia.
‘As for internet access, that’s a question best directed to Moscow,’ Dietz said.
‘Right now, our attention remains on supporting Ukraine and addressing the more significant regional security concerns,’ he concluded.
Up to 10,000 of Pyongyang’s troops are thought to be on the brink of entering the Ukraine conflict with some having already made their way to the Kursk border region, US intelligence has suggested.
Though full Internet access is available for high-level officials and military figures in North Korea, the majority of citizens are only granted access to Kwangmyong or ‘the bright star’ network.
This is the pariah state’s only sanctioned web service and is a heavily firewalled and restricted version of the Internet which does not permit access to any foreign websites, media or news services and is instead replete with state propaganda.
Russia’s state-run media and communications regulator Roskomnadzor also maintains an Internet traffic regulation system known as TSPU, which was formalised in 2019 and requires Russian internet service providers to ensure government-supplied equipment is installed in their networks.
But virtual private networks (VPNs) – tools that allow Internet users to encrypt their data and mask their IP addresses to access sites abroad – are not yet banned and are widely used to circumvent the censors.
It was revealed earlier this year that Russia plans to invest nearly 60 billion roubles ($660 million) over the next five years to widen TSPU’s remit and grant it additional capabilities as the Kremlin seeks to further shape the narrative around the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials declared earlier this week that Kyiv’s forces had clashed with North Korean troops for the first time as Kim Jong Un’s soldiers fought alongside their Russian counterparts to repel Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials declared earlier this week that Kyiv’s forces had clashed with North Korean troops for the first time as Kim Jong Un’s soldiers fought alongside their Russian counterparts to repel Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region.
In an interview with South Korean broadcaster KBS, Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov reported his troops had engaged a ‘small group’ of North Korean soldiers just across the Russian border.
His claims were backed up by US officials who confirmed to Reuters that North Korean troops were actively involved in combat in Russia’s Kursk region on November 4.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized the lack of Western response to North Korea’s involvement, remarking that these ‘first battles with North Korea open a new chapter of instability in the world.’
The alarm was first raised by Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence services who reported that a contingent of up to 11,000 North Korean soldiers had arrived in Russia and had undergone training.
Images of the troops engaged on the battlefield are yet to emerge, but clips purporting to show Pyongyang’s soldiers at training camps in Russia have been widely circulated online.
Russian soldiers taken prisoner in Kursk have also been recorded telling their captors of difficulties they had experienced communicating with the North Koreans, adding that some units had suffered friendly fire.
In one clip, a haggard-looking prisoner of war says his unit was in a forest with ten North Korean soldiers after having been sent to dig out trenches when they were caught in a crossfire.
‘During the assault, the Koreans started firing at us’, he explained.
‘We tried to explain to them where to aim, but I think they shot two of our own’.
‘I decided it was better to surrender in this situation than to be killed by our own bullet’, the soldier said.
