North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has welcomed back soldiers returning from fighting for Russia in Ukraine. In a special ceremony in Pyongyang Kim called the soldiers "heroic." He acknowledged that nine members of the unit had been killed. In 2024, Moscow and Pyongyang signed a strategic partnership promising military assistance should one of them be attacked. South Korean intelligence says Pyongyang has sent up to 15-thousand troops to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine and that thousands have