At dusk one afternoon last week, two dozen wounded North Korean soldiers were brought to one of the main hospitals in the Russian city of Kursk. They were ushered into a specially designated floor, guarded by police, with access limited to translators and medical personnel. “We were told in the morning to prepare for a special type of patient,” said one of the medical staff at the hospital who treated North Koreans. “We’d heard rumours that North Koreans were fighting there, but I didn’t believe it. No one had actually seen them before,” the medic said. “I thought it was