Gordon Chang: North Kora Set to Sent 50,000 More Troops to Russia in the War Against Ukraine

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Tuxy.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
This is the seventy seven WABC Mini cast Zelenski.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Of course, the leader of Ukraine is saying that North
Korea is set to send to Russia fifty thousand troops.
You heard that right, North Korea is set to send
to Russia up to fifty thousand troops. They Yeah, so
they're adding more to it. Isn't that incredible? Wow?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
I guess I guess Russia is paying them and I
guess oil.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yeah, probably not supposed to be, but probably is, probably is,
And how scary that is? So joining US now? Is
Gordon Chang, great Asia expert? Is Twitter? Is Gordon g Chang?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (00:46):
How is Russia paying for this? And how many troops
do you really think North Korea's sending and others maybe
to help Russia?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Yeah, Russia's been paying for this, first of all with cash,
but more important with missile technology. And we think that
the North Koreans have been able to improve their missiles
and their accuracy through this Russian technology. But with this
additional thirty forty fifty thousand troops, and we just don't

(01:14):
know how much it will be, but clearly these payments
will go up, and that's the reason why North Korea's
economy is doing very well right now. The Bank of Korea,
which is the sath Trian Central Bank, which provides the
authoritative evaluations of the North Korean economy, says three years
now they've been in positive GDP after a long slump.

(01:35):
That's because of Russia.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Wow, Judge Weinberg, I mean, this is mind blowing.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
And also, Gordon would concerns me is the fact that
the Korean's also been helping the Iranians with their satellites
and their ability to target out forces. Isn't that correct?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Right? If you scrape the paint off of any Iranian missile,
it's almost certainly going to be a North Korean one.
In March, they fired two intermediate range ballistic missiles at Diego, Garcia,
the joint uk US missile base in the Indian Ocean,
and everybody was surprised. But they shouldn't have been, because

(02:13):
we have been watching State Department sanctions notices and it's
clear that the Iranians have in the components for an
intercontinental ballistic missile, in other words, something that can hit
New York. Now, the one thing we don't know, Judge,
is whether they've been able to actually put all this together.
But that's almost certain that they've been able to do that.

(02:35):
This is what's called a was Song fifteen in North Korea,
and the Iranians have it, which means that the Iranians
are far more capable than the American people realize, and
certainly far more capable. Then President Trump led on in
his speech to the American people about North Korean missiles,
So what.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Do we do about checking North Korea and these efforts?

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Well, unfortunately, and this is by partisan failure, we have
done very little to stop the North Koreans. Now we
can do this. North Korea is sort of difficult for US,
but we can get at China and Russia, which supply
and fortify the North Korean military, and we have failed

(03:18):
to do that. So if we don't have the political will,
but we do have the tools, because China right now
needs the US more than it ever has really and
so because China now has an export dependent economy, totally
export dependent economy, we've got thirty three thirty four percent
of the world's global consumers. We can clearly make the

(03:40):
Chinese hurt and probably drive them away from North Korea
if we exercise the tools that we have, but no
American president. We repeat that, no American president has been
willing to use our leverage over China to get China
to divorce North Korea.

Speaker 1 (03:56):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
And also, of course she is coming next month too
to meet in Washington. So this is a big, big issue.
Gordon Chang, we love you. You always have such great insight.
Thank you so much, Gordon

Speaker 2 (04:09):
Thanks guys, Thanks Reta