lørdag 23. november 2024
Ukraina - Nord koreansk general angivelig skadd - Stars & Stripes
North Korean general
reportedly wounded by Ukrainian attack on Russia
By
David Choi and Yoo Kyong
Chang
Stars and Stripes • November
22, 2024
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks with
military leaders at the Academy of Defense Sciences in Pyongyang, North Korea,
in this image released by the state-run Korean Central News Agency on May 28,
2024. (KCNA)
A recent
Ukrainian attack wounded a North Korean general, the first senior officer
casualty reported among thousands of North Korean troops sent to bolster
Russian forces, a report said.
The
unidentified general was wounded in an unspecified attack in the Kursk region,
according to unnamed Western officials cited by the Wall Street Journal on
Thursday.
North Korean
troops deployed to that area are a “fair target” and the U.S. Defense
Department “absolutely” expects them to be engaged in the fight, Pentagon
spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Thursday at a news conference in Washington,
D.C.
South Korean
officials had not commented on the Journal report as of Friday evening. The
country’s Ministry of National Defense did not immediately respond to a request
for comment by phone that day.
The
potential sacrifice of one general amounts to little in the grand scheme of the
two-year war in Ukraine, said former North Korean soldier Kim Seongmin, chief
executive of Free North Korea Radio, a broadcast station ran by North Korean
defectors.
Kim said he
served as a captain in the North Korean army between 1988 and 1995.
“Pyongyang
put its head into the lion’s mouth for money and the safety of the [North
Korean leader] Kim Jong Un regime,” he said by phone Friday. “How could
infantrymen survive in such a battlefield? It will not end with just a
general.”
North
Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency has yet to confirm it has deployed
troops for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The country’s Foreign Ministry in a
statement last month said it reserved the right to deploy them to support
Russia.
South Korean
lawmakers briefed by intelligence officials Oct. 29 said they received reports
that Col. Gen. Kim Yong Bok, deputy chief of the General Staff of the North
Korean army, was among the troops sent to Russia, according to a Yonhap News
report that day.
At a June
summit in Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged
mutual military aid if either of their countries were at war.
Last month,
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said that over 10,000 North Korean
troops were deployed to Russia’s western border. The Pentagon earlier this
month estimated between 11,000 and 12,000 North Korean troops are in Russia.
The North
Koreans “will provide some type of combat or combat support capability,”
Defense Department spokesman Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a news
conference Nov. 4.
“Should
those troops engage in combat support operations against Ukraine, they would
become legitimate military targets,” he said.
CMV-22 Osprey nødlandet på Okinawa - Stars & Stripes
Denne konstruksjonen er ikke "healthy"med så mange tekniske problemer som typen har.
(Red.)
Navy, Marine
Corps Ospreys make precautionary landings at Japanese airport
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — A Navy Osprey made a precautionary landing Thursday at a commercial airport on an island north of Okinawa, a week after a Marine Corps tiltrotor made a similar landing there.
A CMV-22 Osprey assigned to Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 30, Detachment 1, landed at Amami Airport at approximately 4 p.m. without incident, U.S. Naval Forces Japan spokesman Cmdr. Paul Macapagal said by email Friday.
Seven crew members were on board the tiltrotor, which is deployed from Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego. Macapagal did not elaborate further.
No injuries or property damage were reported, and the cause of the landing is under investigation, he said. The aircraft was still at the airport on Friday afternoon.
“Precautionary landings are a part of our training and commitment to the highest safety standards for our personnel and the communities we serve,” he wrote.
The Osprey landed after “a warning lamp turned on while it was flying,” a spokesman with the Kyushu Defense Bureau, an arm of Japan’s Ministry of Defense, said by phone Friday. Civilian flights at the airport were not affected, he added.
Japan Ground Self-Defense Force personnel from the Amami Area Security Force were dispatched to the airport, the spokesman said.
Some Japanese government officials are required to speak to the media only on condition of anonymity.
The incident follows a Nov. 14 precautionary landing at the airport by an MV-22B Osprey assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 265 from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, according to 1st Marine Aircraft Wing spokesman Maj. Joseph Butterfield.
The aircraft was conducting routine training when it landed at approximately 10:45 a.m. following onboard warning indications, Butterfield said by email Friday. He did not elaborate on the warning indications.
No injuries or property damage were reported, he wrote.
Two other MCAS Futenma-based tiltrotors landed at the airport at 10:45 a.m. and 11:11 a.m. to help with maintenance, the bureau spokesman said.
The aircraft returned to their base the same day, Butterfield said.
“Operating our aircraft safely and effectively is a top priority, and our aviators take great precautions to ensure the safety of the aircrew and the communities in which we operate,” he wrote.
Ospreys have come under increasing scrutiny after a series of fatal accidents. The U.S. and Japan grounded their tiltrotor fleets after an Osprey with Air Force Special Operations Command crashed Nov. 29, 2023, just off Yakushima, an island south of Kyushu in southern Japan, killing all eight crew members on board.
The accident investigation found a catastrophic mechanical failure at fault, compounded by a “lack of urgency” by the crew to deal with an engine problem.
The revolutionary aircraft lands and takes off like a helicopter but flies as a fixed-wing aircraft.
USA forbereder seg på russisk sabotasje i Europa - Stars & Stripes
US defense sites in Europe
should bolster protection against risk of Russian sabotage, agencies say
By
John Vandiver
Stars and Stripes • November
22, 2024
A camera-equipped drone hovers above a training
site at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, in
March 2024. U.S. authorities issued a joint statement Nov. 21, 2024, saying
American defense-related sites in Europe should bolster security to guard
against Russian sabotage. (Ayden Norcross/U.S. Army National Guard )
STUTTGART,
Germany — U.S. authorities say American defense industrial sites in Europe
should step up their security over concerns that Russian saboteurs could target
them.
The National
Counterintelligence and Security Center, the FBI and several Defense Department
agencies issued a joint statement Thursday saying the Kremlin has recruited
criminals and other proxies to conduct such operations.
“U.S.
companies, particularly those supporting entities involved in the Ukraine
conflict or other ongoing geopolitical conflicts, are encouraged to enhance
their vigilance and security efforts as a precaution,” the statement said.
The warning
comes after a series of suspected Russian sabotage actions this week that included
the severing of undersea communication cables running from Germany to Finland
and elsewhere.
Over the
past year, there have been indications of Russia getting more brazen in its
sabotage efforts in Europe. Numerous acts of arson and the attempted assassination
of a German defense industrial leader are among the operations that have been
carried out attempted, according to allies.
In July,
Russian sabotage also was suspected when a package caught fire at a DHL
logistics center before being loaded onto a cargo plane in the eastern German
city of Leipzig.
Package
fires occurred in the same month in Poland and Britain. The senders’ intent was
to do a test run on delivery channels for such packages, which were ultimately
destined for the U.S. or Canada, a Polish prosecutor told the BBC in November.
Gen. Darryl
Williams, the U.S. Army’s top commander in Europe, said
in October that the
situation is increasing the risks of a broader military escalation should
Russian agents take things too far.
“We could
tumble into this thing because of the people that are currently snooping around
Europe and causing mischief in all of our backyards,” Williams said during an
Army conference in Washington.
NATO
Secretary-General Mark Rutte said earlier this month that Russia is
intensifying its campaign of hybrid attacks across allied territories,
“sabotaging industry and committing violence.”
“This shows
that the shifting front line in this war is no longer solely within Ukraine,”
Rutte said during a news conference in Berlin. “Increasingly, the front line is
moving beyond borders — to the Baltic region, to Western Europe and even to the
High North.”
The United
States is involved in an array of military and defense industry efforts in
Europe. In Bavaria, for instance, American and European companies are
coordinating with NATO to produce 1,000 Patriot air defense missiles at a new
factory, according to NATO.
In June,
U.S. military bases were put on heightened alert in connection with potential
threats to installations across the Continent.
While the
Pentagon never specified the nature of the threat, CNN reported in July that
the move came in response to information that Russia-backed actors were
considering sabotage attacks against American military personnel and facilities.
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