"We get to work now."

It was back in June that Vladimir Putin toasted a “peaceful and defensive” pact with Kim Jong Un.And there is mounting evidence that North Korea is supplying Russia with ammunition, as recently demonstrated by the recovery of a missile in Ukraine’s Poltava region.

In fact, reports of mines and shells supplied by Pyongyang date back to December 2023 in Telegram chats involving Russia’s military communities.Russian soldiers, stationed in Ukraine, have often complained about the standard of ammunition and that dozens of soldiers have been wounded.Kyiv suspects that a unit of North Korean soldiers is preparing in the Ulan-Ude region close to the Mongolian border ahead of deployment to Russia’s Kursk province, where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion back in August.

“They could guard some sections of the Russian-Ukrainian border, which would free Russian units for fighting elsewhere,” said Valeriy Ryabykh, editor of the Ukrainian publication Defence Express.“I would rule out the possibility that these units will immediately appear on the front line.”

Ryabakh is not alone in this thought.

North Korea may have some 1.28 million active soldiers but its army has no recent experience of combat operations, unlike Russia’s military.David Henwood is the party’s candidate for Oxford East in the general election.

"They create longer car journeys, more pollution and more congestion," he says.It has been a big local issue in recent years, but this is the first opportunity since LTNs were introduced that the issue could be brought up at a national level.

Oxford East’s Labour candidate, Anneliese Dodds, thinks that bus services should be improved first as "not everyone in Oxford can cycle or walk".Louise Brown is the Conservative party candidate. She says that East Oxford does not have enough cycle lanes or regular buses, making LTNs "unworkable".