According to "The New York Times," Kim Jong Un proposed sending his troops to Russia, not Vladimir Putin. U.S. intelligence suggests that North Korea hopes to gain future benefits through this action.

Kim Jong Un is personally supervising the training of troops being sent to Russia before their deployment to Ukraine. According to South Korean intelligence, the North Korean leader is closely monitoring the exercises,

After two years of intense courtship, progressing from warm words to vital weapons, summits in Pyongyang to 11,000 soldiers on the ground in Russia, the burgeoning relationship between Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un was signed in blood this week when the first stories emerged of North Korean casualties on the Ukrainian battlefield.