Pentagon responds to claims North Korean troops in Russia ‘gorging on pornography’ | EUROtoday

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The Pentagon has responded to claims that North Korean troops despatched to Russia to bolster Vladimir Putin’s forces are consuming on-line pornography as they now have much less restricted web entry.

US division of defence spokesperson Major Charlie Dietz mentioned he couldn’t confirm “any North Korean internet habits or virtual ‘extracurriculars’” happening in Russia.

He continued: “As for internet access, that’s a question best directed to Moscow. Right now, our attention remains on supporting Ukraine and addressing the more significant regional security concerns”.

North Korea’s latest deployment of troops to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, confirmed by each the US and Nato, has raised critical issues throughout Asia and with Kyiv’s Western allies.

The transfer threatens to widen the practically three-year battle and is fueling safety anxieties in South Korea and past about potential concessions Russia would possibly provide North Korea in return.

Major Dietz’s feedback adopted the declare made by the Financial Times’ chief overseas affairs columnist Gideon Rachman, who wrote on X: “A usually reliable source tells me that the North Korean soldiers who have deployed to Russia have never had unfettered access to the internet before. As a result, they are gorging on pornography.”

Although web entry in Russia is just not unrestricted, it stays way more open than in North Korea—one of many world’s most tightly managed international locations that notoriously restricts its citizen’s entry to the web. North Korea is first within the rankings of lowest web penetration charge as of October 2024, in accordance with Statista.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian and North Korean troops, for the primary time, engaged in small-scale preventing that amounted to the beginning of Pyongyang’s direct involvement within the conflict, Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov instructed South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS in an interview.

North Korean troopers are reportedly embedded with Russian troops and put on altered uniforms, making it troublesome to verify any North Korean casualties, Mr Umerov instructed KBS. He additionally mentioned that he anticipates round 5 North Korean models, every with roughly 3,000 troopers, can be stationed within the Kursk area close to Russia’s border with Ukraine.