North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may not have attended the mass parade through Moscow’s Red Square on Friday, but he didn’t miss the opportunity to use the anniversary of Russia’s World War II victory over Nazi Germany to celebrate their bilateral military ties.

In a speech at the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang, Kim offered his fullest explanation to date for his decision to deploy thousands of Korean People’s Army soldiers to fight against Ukraine, echoing the Kremlin’s propaganda about needing to oppose the “neo-Nazi” regime in Kyiv.

But he also went beyond Vladimir Putin’s pseudo-historical talking points to link