any North Korean troops that do come out of this with real-life combat experience and do return to North Korea will be the first Nork soldiers with real combined arms and large-scale combat experience since the Korean War. These troops could be valuable as a training cadre for any future North Korean operations — say, against South Korea.

The Spanish Civil War, we might note, served a very similar role in providing both German and Soviet troops with real-world combat experience.

The statement by DoD notes that there is as yet no confirmation that the North Korean troops have entered into combat operations against Ukrainian forces, but there's literally no other reason to move them into the Kursk region. While their most likely fate will be "cannon fodder," 11,000 fresh troops could make a difference for a while; but it's important to note that the DoD estimates Russia is losing 1,200 troops a day in the conflict, meaning that any numerical advantage provided by this influx will be eliminated in less than ten days.

But Iran? If Iran were to obtain a nuke, either by building their own or just buying one from North Korea or Pakistan, that might very well be the flashpoint. This is a line that has not been crossed since 1945, and was Iran to torch off a nuke in Haifa - or New York - that would almost certainly plunge the world into conflict.

Watch Iran. Watch the least stable players. Hopefully, reason will prevail, but as von Clausewitz famously said, "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

Thousands of exposed files on North Korean server tell the tale.