The Kremlin is threatening to retaliate against South Korea if Seoul begins shipping weaponry directly to Ukraine in response to North Korea’s growing deployment of troops to reinforce the Russian military in the war. The Kremlin warned over the weekend that it will respond “in every way that we find necessary” if South Korea sends arms to Ukraine, underscoring how Russia’s war of aggression is increasingly linked to a delicate geopolitical web that threatens to destabilize an already volatile Northeast Asia.

The escalating war is now pulling in other nations in a way that will provide a crucial early test for Mr. Trump, who is set to take office in January and has vowed to end the war quickly. South Korea is already providing weapons to U.S. allies, but has thus far adhered to a policy of not directly arming Ukraine. Officials in Seoul say that the policy is now under review. They worry Russia may reward North Korea by giving it sophisticated weapons technologies that can boost the North’s nuclear and missile programs that target South Korea.

Mr. Waltz, Mr. Trump’s nominee for White House national security adviser, said over the weekend that the president-elect fully grasps how rapidly the international landscape is shifting. “North Korea has made this move. We have made a move. Russia has now responded. Iran is involved. South Korea is thinking about getting involved. Our allies have now extended the range of their missiles as well,” said Mr. Waltz. “We need to bring this to a responsible end. We need to restore deterrence, restore peace and get ahead of this escalation ladder rather than responding to it.”

North Korea’s movement of military forces to fight at the Russia-Ukraine border represents the the largest deployment of East Asian troops to Europe since Genghis Khan in the 13th century, according to Washington Times Asia Editor Andrew Salmon, who emphasizes on the latest episode of the Threat Status weekly podcast how the development is “changing the global security dynamics.”

The arrival of the North Korean forces puts meat on the bones of the growing alignment “between China, Russia, North Korea and Iran,” says Mr. Salmon. “These continental powers in the center of the Eurasian continent are being countered by the democracies on the eastern and western edges of it: …NATO in the West and … a coalition, perhaps, of democracies in the East.”

“NATO and has been talking a great deal about sort of building links with Japan, South Korea and Australia,” he says, adding that while the democracies use U.S. standard NATO weaponry, what Russia and North Korea are doing is particularly significant in that their troops are now “fighting side by side” on the ground. … I think [they’ve] seized the initiative in this situation.”

Americans paid for hundreds of thousands of meals that went to al Qaeda-affiliated fighters in Syria, federal prosecutors revealed last week in announcing charges against the nongovernmental organization employee who they say was responsible for the diversion. Mahmoud Al Hafyan, who ran the organization’s Syrian division, skimmed as much as $10 million worth of meals funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The meals were supposed to go to Syrian civil war refugees. Mr. Al Hafyan allowed members of the Nusra Front, an al Qaeda-linked terrorist organization, to collect the meals, U.S. investigators said as they unsealed an indictment last week. 

Mr. Al Hafyan doctored the books to hide the diversions, but authorities said two whistleblowers reported him. They suggested he then faked a kidnapping to argue that he was forced to divert the food kits, but the details and timing undercut his claim. All told, 380,000 meal kits were diverted to the Nusra Front in what authorities called a shocking abuse of U.S. taxpayers’ generosity.

Special operations troops such as Army Green Berets or Navy SEALs prepare for the most dangerous missions in the U.S. military through high-risk training that would wear down the most rugged outdoor adventurer. But serious training accidents involving America’s commandos have raised questions about whether safety is sufficiently stressed. 

In a new survey, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said about 80% of more than 3,600 reported on-duty, noncombat accidents in 2012 through 2022 involving special operations forces, or SOF, personnel happened in training activities. Almost half of that number involved parachute and combat dive training.

Pentagon Correspondent Mike Glenn offers a deeper look at the GAO’s findings. “The data show that over 80% of training accidents were reported as due to human error,” analysts at the watchdog agency said in their report. “Factors that were commonly present and contributed to these accidents included failure to adhere to training standards and complacency.”

The incoming Trump administration should focus its challenge to Tehran through Iran’s ethnic minorities, according to columnist Jed Babbin, who highlights videos in which two leaders of two ethnic groups — Aref Al Kaabi of the Ahwazis and Hyrbyair Marri of the Balochis — have pleaded for independence and denounced the ayatollahs.

“Combined with the other two major ethnic groups — the Kurds and the Azeris — and given weapons, intelligence and funding, they could topple the Tehran regime,” writes Mr. Babbin.

“What Mr. Trump needs to do is to sign a top-secret presidential decision directive requiring that the CIA give the Balochis, the Ahwazis, the Kurds and the Azeris the help they need to overthrow the Iranian regime,” he writes. “Mr. Trump could thus propel a revolution against the regime and should do so quickly.”

• Dec. 2 — The Troublemaker: How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared Critic, American Enterprise Institute

• Dec. 4 — El Salvador’s Economic Evolution: Investment Insights and Opportunities, Atlantic Council

• Dec. 4 — Alaska’s Strategic Importance for the Indo-Pacific, Hudson Institute

• Dec. 5 — China’s Role in Indonesia’s Clean Energy Transition, Wilson Center

• Dec. 7 — 2024 Reagan National Defense Forum, Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute