Why North Korea Is Coming Clean on Its Role in the Russia-Ukraine War

By Tom O’Connor – Newsweek

North Korea’s once-covert role in direct support of Russia’s war against Ukraine is now being embraced by the nation’s leadership, a shift that reflects emerging realities on the battlefield and in the world order to the benefit of Moscow and Pyongyang.

North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un’s award ceremony and visit to a memorial to troops slain in action on Friday marked the latest step in a trend that began in April, when Pyongyang first acknowledged that it sent soldiers to aid Moscow in repelling a Ukrainian offensive in Russia’s Kursk region. That reveal took place some six months after intelligence from the United States and South Korea first assessed that North Korean forces had arrived in Russia