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Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at North Korean forces in Russia, Hezbollah naming its new leader, and an election recount in the country of Georgia.
‘Growing Desperation’
NATO confirmed on Monday that North Korean troops have deployed to Russia’s Kursk region to help combat Ukraine. This marks a “significant escalation” in the war, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said, adding that the deployment is a sign of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “growing desperation.” As many as 10,000 North Korean soldiers have reportedly been sent to eastern Russia for training.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at North Korean forces in Russia, Hezbollah naming its new leader, and an election recount in the country of Georgia.
‘Growing Desperation’
NATO confirmed on Monday that North Korean troops have deployed to Russia’s Kursk region to help combat Ukraine. This marks a “significant escalation” in the war, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said, adding that the deployment is a sign of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “growing desperation.” As many as 10,000 North Korean soldiers have reportedly been sent to eastern Russia for training.
A North Korean presence in Russia signals how the Kremlin hopes to offset battlefield losses. “Over 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in Putin’s war, and he is unable to sustain his assault on Ukraine without foreign support,” Rutte said. Yet Moscow continues to make steady gains in eastern Ukraine, with the Russian Defense Ministry announcing on Monday that its troops have captured the village of Tsukuryne in the Donetsk region.
“North Korean troops, unlike Russian conscripts and convicts, might not just be cannon fodder,” FP’s Keith Johnson reports, highlighting the roughly 1,500 North Korean special forces that South Korea claims is part of the deployment. U.S. intelligence suggests that Pyongyang’s units will likely fight Ukraine within “the next several weeks.”
North Korea and Russia reupped their military ties last year and signed a comprehensive strategic partnership that included a mutual defense pact in June. Pyongyang has also been accused of sending ballistic missiles and ammunition to Moscow to fuel its war effort in exchange for military technology and other key assistance.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on world leaders last Saturday to increase pressure on North Korea and once again urged allies to allow Kyiv to use Western-supplied weapons to strike deeper inside Russian territory. Putin has previously warned the United States and its partners that such approval would be seen as “direct involvement of NATO” in the conflict.
U.S. President Joe Biden called the North Korean deployment “very dangerous” on Monday, but the U.S. Defense Department said it would not impose new limits on Ukraine’s use of American-supplied weapons if North Korean troops join the fight.
Having North Korean forces in Russia also stokes geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and wider Indo-Pacific, as Seoul has repeatedly warned against its northern neighbor’s involvement. “Deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” Rutte said after speaking with a South Korean delegation. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will meet with their South Korean counterparts in Washington on Thursday to discuss the conflict.
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What We’re Following
Naim Qassem takes over. Hezbollah announced on Tuesday that Naim Qassem will become the Lebanese militant group’s new leader after Israeli forces assassinated Hassan Nasrallah last month. Despite Qassem being Nasrallah’s deputy since 1991, he was not the group’s obvious choice. Many analysts expected Hezbollah to choose Nasrallah’s cousin Hashem Safieddine; however, an Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed Safieddine in early October.
Israel responded to Hezbollah’s announcement with a warning: “Temporary appointment. Not for long,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X alongside a photo of Qassem. It is unclear how Qassem’s selection could impact efforts to implement a cease-fire in Lebanon. Following Nasrallah’s death, Qassem said Hezbollah was prepared for a “long” battle with Israel.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Knesset passed two laws on Monday banning the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (known as UNRWA) from operating inside Israel. The package severs all ties between the organization and the Israeli government. UNRWA communications director Juliette Touma said the agency plans to continue its work. Most of the laws’ provisions won’t go into effect for three months.
Israel has long criticized the group for allegedly backing Palestinian militant groups. In August, the U.N. completed an investigation into suspected UNRWA employee involvement in Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel—terminating nine staffers.
However, rights activists said the legislation violates international law by delegitimizing the agency’s role in providing Palestinian refugees with essential humanitarian services, including food, health care, and education. UNRWA is one of the major aid distributors in Gaza and provides services in the West Bank and elsewhere in the region. Several countries, including the United States, have expressed concern about the Knesset’s decision. Israel has suggested it might take over aid distribution in Gaza itself or subcontract it out but has yet to put forth a specific plan.
Voting recount. Some 14 percent of polling stations in the country of Georgia will recount ballots, its election commission announced on Tuesday, after the opposition disputed the results of Saturday’s parliamentary election. The ruling Georgian Dream party claimed on Sunday to have won 54 percent of the vote; however, pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili blamed opposition losses on voter fraud and urged people to protest the “stolen” election. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated against the results in the capital of Tbilisi late Monday.
Georgia’s election commission had previously called the vote free and fair but agreed to randomly select five polling stations in each of Georgia’s 84 electoral districts for a recount, as required under Georgian law. “All authorized representatives are invited to observe the ballot recount process,” the commission said. Election monitors were among those that cited instances of voter intimidation and ballot stuffing across the country.
On Tuesday, Sweden suspended relations with Georgia over its election controversy, saying Stockholm “stands ready with open doors if Georgia moves towards a more democratic development.” The Georgian Dream party has historically supported closer ties with Russia.
Political theater or assassination attempt? Bolivian Interior Minister Eduardo del Castillo accused former President Evo Morales on Monday of falsely claiming that the government tried to assassinate him. According to Castillo, a convoy transporting Morales failed to stop at a government anti-drug checkpoint in central Chapare on Sunday. While speeding away, the convoy fired shots at and ran over one police officer. In response, police gave chase and fired at Morales’s car.
“Nobody believes the theater you have staged,” Castillo said, adding that Morales must answer for the “crime of attempted murder.”
Morales, however, claims that police fired on his car more than 18 times and that his security team only shot back in response. He accused the ruling government under President Luis Arce of being behind a “dark plot to destroy” him. Morales resigned from office in 2019 after a disputed election resulted in Arce gaining power. The country’s constitutional court disqualified Morales from running again in 2025, reversing a rule that would have let him seek a fourth term.
Odds and Ends
A Japanese town with a declining population has created dozens of life-size puppets to stave off loneliness. Fewer than 60 people live in the Japanese town of Ichinono, where most residents are above the retirement age. Here, puppets outnumber people, according to one resident. Homemade mannequins around town strike human poses, playing on swing sets, pushing firewood carts, riding bikes, and smiling at passersby. Let’s just hope that if you wave, they don’t wave back.