North Korea began sending an estimated 11,000 troops to the Russian Kursk region late last year, soon after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed on a mutual defense pact designed to strengthen their alliance against what they called a US-led “Western hegemony.”

In its first direct criticism of the Trump administration, North Korea lashed out at U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for calling it a “rogue” state and warned Monday that such “coarse and nonsensical remarks” will never contribute to U.

North Korean ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine by Russian forces since late December have been far more precise than salvos of the weapons launched over the past year, two senior Ukrainian sources told Reuters.