Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.

There is mounting evidence from the battlefield, intelligence reports and testimonies of defectors that some North Korean soldiers are resorting to extreme measures as they support Russia's three-year war with Ukraine.

North Korean troops have been deployed to bolster Russian forces in the Kursk border region with Ukraine, where they are gaining battlefield experience despite initial heavy losses.

Over 12,000 North Korean troops are estimated to be fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, the United Nations Security Council learned last week.

It was a month-long mission with one primary goal — capturing a North Korean soldier alive. One of the biggest obstacles facing the Ukrainian forces tasked with the objective while operating in Russia’s Kursk Oblast was overcoming the fanatical,

South Korea's top envoy to the United Nations said Thursday that North Korean troops are being dissipated as "expendables" in Russia's war against Ukraine and treated as a "cynical" means of sustaining the North Korean regime.

The North Korean authorities are increasingly concerned about the mental condition and moral state of soldiers sent on a military mission to Russia. According to information obtained by Daily NK, the soldiers are exhibiting signs of extreme fear,