After months of denials and ambiguous justifications, North Korea and Russia have finally acknowledged what has long been plain to much of the world — that DPRK soldiers have been fighting in the Ukraine war.

Moscow first confirmed the deployment on Saturday, while Pyongyang followed suit two days later by lionizing the “heroic” soldiers who took part in the “liberation” of the Russian border region of Kursk. The allies are now eagerly justifying their joint operations as a necessary response to Kyiv’s incursion, releasing photos and videos of their cooperation for the first time.

But the two countries’ abrupt shift