A secret no more: Russia and N. Korea's battle against Ukraine is celebrated in Moscow exhibit

By Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Smiling Russian and North Korean troops shown holding the two countries’ flags as they celebrate their victory over Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, and a painting of Pyongyang’s troops engaged in a firefight against Ukrainian forces.

What is billed as the biggest exhibition of North Korean art held outside the reclusive state is the latest sign of warming ties between Moscow and Pyongyang – and evidence of their increasingly tight geopolitical embrace in the face of what they say is a hostile West.

It also marks a public relations U-turn. For months, Russia and North Korea sought to keep secret the role Pyongyang’s soldiers played in helping Moscow push Ukrainians out of Kursk in western Russia. Now it is the subject of mutual and public pri