The deployment of North Korean troops to Russia to support its war efforts in Ukraine has pushed Asia into dangerous territory.
The move has ratcheted up already heightened hostilities between North and South Korea and threatens to destabilize the wider Indo-Pacific region. The U.S., under President-elect Donald Trump’s leadership, will need to find a way to tone down the actions of the increasingly belligerent North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
For Kim, this deal with Russia makes perfect sense. In September, he vowed to bolster the country’s nuclear weapons capabilities, as a form of deterrence against the South. The two Koreas are still technically at war, having never officially signed a peace treaty when the Korean War ended in 1953.
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