(Reuters) - Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.

Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang has confirmed the deployment of troops from North Korea to Russia to fight Ukrainian forces.

North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea on Tuesday, Seoul's military said, in a provocation just days before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Russia is planning to share advanced satellite technology with North Korea, according to a warning from Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The loose arrangement of hostile powers could pose a series of conundrums for President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of state.

Separately, Ukraine revealed more details about the first two North Korean soldiers it has captured alive and said it was willing to exchange them for Ukrainians held in Russia.

Over 12,000 North Korean troops are estimated to be fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, the United Nations Security Council learned last week. North Korea launched ...

Russia signed a strategic partnership treaty with Iran on Friday that follows similar pacts with China and North Korea. All three countries are adversaries of the United States, and Russia has used its ties with them to help blunt the impact of Western sanctions and boost its war effort in Ukraine.

North Korea warned Friday that it would exercise its right to self-defense "more intensively" as it condemned recent joint air drills among South Korea, the United States and Japan.

Ukraine’s president released a video of the two soldiers being interrogated, revealing they knew little about the war they were sent to fight in.

North Korean troops have been deployed to bolster Russian forces in the Kursk border region with Ukraine, where they are gaining battlefield experience despite initial heavy losses.