A fragment of a note written by a North Korean soldier who died while deployed in Russia’s war against Ukraine suggests that Pyongyang may have sent convicts to support Russia. Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces revealed a memo allegedly written by a soldier identified as Jung Kyung-hong via Telegram on Dec.

The North Korean losses amount to almost 10 percent of the country’s deployment to Russia, the Biden administration said.

Russia launched a major invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The recent deployment of North Korean troops to Russia is a sign of the growing alliance between the two pariah states.