The US said North Korea had delivered arms to Russia for use against Ukraine, saying it would further Vladimir Putin’s war.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday that Pyongyang had provided 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions.
Kirby said the US was also concerned about Russia in turn providing assistance to North Korea.
“In
return for its support, we assess that Pyongyang is seeking military
assistance from Russia, including fighter aircraft surface-to-air
missiles, armored vehicles, ballistic missile production equipment, or
other materials and other advanced technologies,” he said. “We are
monitoring closely whether Moscow will provide Pyongyang with these
materials and we have already observed Russian ships offloading containers in the DPRK.”
Kim
and Putin held a bilateral meeting in September in Russia, where they
committed to cooperate on security and space innovation, but which US
officials said was focused on furthering arms deals between the two
countries.
Anonymous
South Korea is already screwed economically. The desperation of South Korea already became apparent when it tried to source rare earth ores from Mongolia for refining to support its semiconductor manufacturing, to no avail. China is not going to support the move by allowing Mongolia to ship rare earth ores to South Korea for refining, using its Tianjin port. This was an attempt by the USA and South Korea to exploit Mongolia's rare earth ores to counter China's rare earth control. It is plain logic that China will never allow such Mongolian ores to pass through its territory, when it is in the process of countering the chip war initiated by the USA and its Chip4 alliance countries, which South Korea is part of.
ReplyDeleteSamsung is now suffering big time, with profits plunging so rapidly that it has been touted as catastrophic losses quarter on quarter. Samsung and Hynix are both anticipating further losses without Chinese rare earth elements for their semiconductor manufacturing. They will be left in the lurch by the USA, by following the USA to sanction China in high end chips. They reap what they sow and deserves no sympathy.
South Korea's economy depends for a major part on the nations semiconductor sector, and any downturn is not going to be taken lightly. It is still early days since China's restrictions on rare earth came into effect on lst August. The sector probably can still fall back on stock piling earlier, but such stocks will not last forever.
As a self conforting narrative, the West is saying there is not much to worry abou, as it will take only a few years for the rest of the world to set up facilities to do it and not depend on China totally. Let us wait and see.
China as the dominant player can influence the market by flooding the market or restricting it. China will just let them set up expensive facilities and plants to refine rare earth, but China could easily kill them off by flooding the market when they come on line, with much cheaper rare earth elements. Therefore, let us see who wants to invest in such expensive facilities when the outlook appears so uncertain, with returns not guaranteed. Investors are not going to throw money into ventures with uncertain prospects. There have been facilities being mothballed due to losses from uncompetitive pricing resulting in their failures.
Meanwhile, its absolutely kosher for USA & its poodles to send USD Billions worth of arms to UKR
ReplyDeleteEither with us of against us - USA
To the last Ukrainians - USA
Best money ever spend - USA
What China leveraged on is based on years of studying issues and weighing its usefulness or potential sucess. China invested in rare earth processing, building up its refining infrastructures years before semiconductors even started playing centre stage in global technology development. China started securing basic raw materials for its EV industry, years before embarking on its road to concentrate on EVs. Those are just basic examples.
ReplyDeleteWhat the USA leveraged on is based on conjecture coming out of thin air and based on immediate gratification, using force, sanctions and threats as their weapon. And its modus operandi is using allies as cannon fodder when it comes to countering Russia and China. How much success have they garnered in their sanctions on Russia? How much success are they reaping setting up the oil caps?
Morever, over the longer term, how much success have their sanctions been working against Cuba or North Korea for more than half a century? Both are still standing and uncollapsible, with North Korea even becoming a nuclear power and producing weapons for sale to Russia. Sanctions only serves to make them even more determined to stand up against the USA. It is said that the more the USA tried to put countries down, the more hardened is their resolve to survive. It is the same with Russia and it will be the same with China, if it comes around. Russia will end up stronger, which it already is compared to the EU, the cannon fodder of the USA. Japan and South Korea are also in the same shoes as the EU supporting the USA in its tech war against China and now suffering economically.