Pyongyang has sent thousands of soldiers to fight alongside Moscow, which continues its ongoing invasion of Ukraine for nearly four years, according to South Korean and Western intelligence. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced that his country has sent troops to Russia's Kursk region this year to clear mines there, according to a speech carried by state media on Saturday, a rare admission from Pyongyang about the dangerous tasks assigned to its forces there. Analysts say that Russia, in return, is providing North Korea with financial, technological, food, and energy assistance, allowing the isolated state to circumvent international sanctions. Kim praised the return of an engineering regiment from Kursk, noting that
