North Korean leader Kim Jong Un poses for a photo with soldiers of the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su Guards 105th Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army. [ KCNA VIA KNS]

North Korean army mobilizes in Russia-Ukraine war

STORY BY STEPHEN J. THORNE

At more than 7.7 million reserve and active-duty personnel, North Korea has the world’s largest army, and now 11,000-12,000 of them have taken up positions alongside Russian forces fighting Ukrainian troops in the region of WW II’s greatest tank battle.

North Koreans are among some 50,000 soldiers launching a major assault on Ukrainian positions in Russia’s Kursk region, where a three-month-old Ukrainian incursion has stalled.

A Ukrainian commander told CNN that the North Koreans were involved in direct combat operations in Kursk, as well as defensive operations in the neighbouring Belgorod region of Russia and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories.

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Henry Norman Bethune during his Medical school graduation 1916. [Wikimedia]

In His Blood: The Life and Death of Norman Bethune

STORY BY ALEX BOWERS

The hands of Norman Bethune, a Canadian thoracic surgeon born on March 4, 1890, had been saving lives long before he stepped foot in Spain or China.

The Gravenhurst, Ont., native, whose grandfather had himself been a surgeon during the Crimean War, first volunteered for the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in September 1914, serving as a stretcher bearer on the Western Front.

Bethune, then aged 25, was wounded during the 1915 Second Battle of Ypres. He subsequently returned home, completed a previously deferred medical degree, and re-enlisted in the Royal Navy before transferring to the Canadian Flying Corps.

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More from Military Milestones

• Victoria Cross Trio of Leliefontein: A Boer War Story of Courage
• The forgotten grave of Canada’s first VC recipient, Alexander Roberts Dunn
• The Battle of Bowmanville

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