North Korean troops are no longer fighting on Russia’s behalf in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine, according to reports. Pyongyang signed a mutual defence agreement with Moscow last year, promising to defend one another if a third party were to attack.

Pyongyang would seem to have little reason to send its own people to risk their lives in the Russia-Ukraine War. But these soldiers appear to be at the heart of the North Korea-Russia security partnership.

North Korean soldiers previously fighting alongside Russia's army on the Kursk front line appear not to have been engaged in combat since mid-January, South Korea's spy agency told AFP on Tuesday, after Ukraine claimed they had been withdrawn following heavy losses.

Russian military personnel are being treated in North Korea's "best hospitals and sanatoriums," an official said.

North Korea has treated hundreds of Russian soldiers injured in Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Pyongyang told state media, as he revealed new details of the reclusive state’s backing for the Kremlin’s war effort.

Russian soldiers wounded in the war in Ukraine are being rehabilitated in North Korean sanatoriums and specialized clinics, said the Russian ambassador to North Korea, Alexandr Matsegora. “A clear example of the fraternal relationship between Russians and North Koreans is the rehabilitation of hundreds of fighters wounded in the special military operation in Korean sanatoriums and medical centers,

Russia is allegedly using medical treatment as a cover to send soldiers to North Korea for military cooperation.