Bohdan Krotevych, acting commander of Ukraine’s controversial Azov Brigade, on Sunday reportedly suggested that now might be a good time for South Korea to attack North Korea and reunite the Korean Peninsula, since the North has dispatched so many of its best troops to help Russia fight in Ukraine.
The Azov Brigade is a Ukrainian volunteer militia that has been linked to neo-Nazi activity. Awkwardly for Ukraine’s defenders, it has also been one of the most determined and combat-effective units against the Russian invasion. The Ukrainian government incorporated Azov as a unit of its national guard several years ago and, last year, it was promoted to the status of special forces unit. The U.S. government lifted its long-standing ban on direct support for the Azov Brigade in June 2024.
“North Korea sent its most powerful troops to the war in Ukraine. This is South Korea’s chance to permanently end the division artificially created by the Soviet communist regime since 1945,” Krotevych said in a post on social media platform X written in Korean and quoted by South Korean media.
“It is also a chance for all of East Asia to protect itself from its neighbors with nuclear buttons,” he added, seemingly suggesting that countries such as Japan that have grown tired of North Korean missiles whizzing over their heads might want to get in on the action.
There seemed to be few takers for Krotevych’s suggestion in South Korea, as critics pointed out the North still has its nuclear arsenal and plenty of fingers to push those buttons, although Krotevych might subscribe to the Sgt. Charles Zim school of thought on that point.
“The ‘chance’ mentioned in the post represents more of a ‘tragedy,’” one South Korean responded to Krotevych’s suggestion.
“How can you bring up a ‘chance’ when only 10,000 out of 1.1 million troops are out of the country?” said another respondent, bringing up the immense size of North Korea’s standing army.
“Most of the North Korean troops are concentrated near the DMZ. The straight-line distance from Seoul to Gaeseong is only 45 kilometers,” this critic pointed out.
Krotevych pronounced himself satisfied with the discourse prompted by his post the next day.
“As we can see, the dialogue led to the fact that North Korea recognized your country as an enemy country in its constitution and undermined all communications between you,” he told his South Korean correspondents.
“Peace requires being strong to resist evil. As we can see, only Ukraine and Israel understand it so far,” he said.
The South Korean government certainly is not pleased to see North Korea sending troops to help Russia, if indeed those allegations are confirmed. Seoul announced on Tuesday it will take “phased measures” in response to North Korea’s close cooperation with Russia, possibly including weapons shipments to Ukraine.
North Korea on Monday denounced the reports of troops sent to Ukraine as “groundless, stereotyped rumors aimed at smearing the image of the DPRK and undermining the legitimate, friendly, and cooperative relations between sovereign states.”
