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.

These days Russia and North Korea are writing a new battlefield history together. North Korea has dispatched some 12,000 troops to fight in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. The soldiers are believed to be some of North Korea’s most elite,

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,

Ukraine has asserted that North Korean troops engaged in the war are more combat-ready than Russian soldiers, a claim it says is echoed by Russian prisoners of war.

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,