https://www.scmp.com/rss/13509/feed Aidan Foster-Carter is an honorary senior research fellow in sociology and modern Korea at Leeds University, UK. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com You send the flower of your nation’s youth to fight another’s war. Thousands are cut down. Might you think again? Not if you are North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Last Thursday, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) said Pyongyang had dispatched additional forces – up to 3,000, according to press reports – to join the 12,000 or so aiding Russia’s war on Ukraine. This followed January reports that North Korean troops had vanished from the front after heavy losses. Some thought Kim had... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3300697/sending-koreans-die-russia-bad-move-more-ways-one?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3300697/sending-koreans-die-russia-bad-move-more-ways-one?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Mar 2025 21:30:08 +0000 Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s supreme leader, recently sent greetings to his counterparts in China and Russia, both Pyongyang’s big-brother states. Comparing the two is instructive. On October 6, Kim sent “warm greetings” to Chinese President Xi Jinping on the 75th anniversary of bilateral ties and the founding of the People’s Republic of China. His language was formal: vigorous advances “along the road of socialism”; hoping “the Chinese people will achieve steady and fresh successes” under... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3281731/why-china-north-koreas-closest-comrade-not-russia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/china-opinion/article/3281731/why-china-north-koreas-closest-comrade-not-russia?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Oct 2024 01:30:07 +0000 According to the old adage, beggars can't be choosers. But North Korea breaks most rules, and it has long been an exception to this one. Leader Kim Jong-il's policy of militant mendicancy - panhandling with menaces; both beggar and mugger - has served him well. It's hard to credit, but not so long ago North Korea was the top recipient of US food aid in Asia - via the UN World Food Programme - after a man-made famine killed a million or more in the late 1990s. Such aid saved lives. But it also... https://www.scmp.com/article/564495/when-misery-beggars-description?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/article/564495/when-misery-beggars-description?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 18 Sep 2006 16:00:00 +0000