What You Need to Know: North Korea’s deployment of troops to Russia’s Kursk region to support its Ukraine war efforts has raised alarms in Washington and Seoul. The partnership between Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin appears rooted not in ideology but in mutual strategic benefit.

-North Korea, concerned about a strengthening trilateral U.S.-South Korea-Japan alliance, seeks advanced military technology and political backing from Russia. Meanwhile, Moscow is eager for any support in Ukraine.

-However, while the U.S. sees this cooperation as an emerging “axis,” the relationship may prove transient, driven by convenience rather than lasting alignment, especially if U.S. foreign policy or Ukraine’s conflict dynamics shift.

Reports of thousands of North Korean troops deploying to Russia’s Kursk region have caused an uproar in multiple capitals. As one might expect, Washington, D.C. is one of them. After meeting with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-Hyun at the Pentagon on October 30, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed “deep concerns” about the North Korean deployment and made it clear that U.S. and South Korean officials were watching the development closely. A day later, Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave more detail, telling reporters that North Korean soldiers were being trained in artillery, drone warfare, and infantry operations, that 8,000 of them were already in Kursk, and that their involvement in combat operations could come in a matter of........

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