Secretive North Korea has one of the world’s largest militaries, with 1.28 million active soldiers, but unlike in Russia, the Korean People's Army (KPA) has no recent experience of combat. Pyongyang’s army is “thoroughly indoctrinated but with low readiness,” says Mark Cancian, from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

There are risks of North Korea sending additional troops and military equipment to the Russian army,” Zelensky said. “We will have tangible responses to this.”

Authorities in Ukraine, South Korea and the United States have all reported deaths among North Korean soldiers near Ukraine’s border in Russia’s Kursk. Here is what we know so

North Korea and Russia are deepening their military cooperation, as Pyongyang ramps up the supply of arms to Moscow for its war in Ukraine and receives much needed cash and oil from the Kremlin in return.

In Trump-led armistice talks, the Hermit Kingdom may want a seat at the table.

South Korea's military has said that North Korea is preparing to continue aiding Russia in its war with Ukraine, despite casualties.

"Through various sources of information and intelligence, we assess that North Korean troops who have recently engaged in combat with Ukrainian forces have suffered around 1,100 casualties," the JCS said in a statement.

The Russian army went to war in Ukraine in February 2022 with around 2,000 tracked howitzers. In 34 months of brutal combat, the army has lost no fewer than 800 of these self-propelled artillery pieces to Ukrainian action. Hundreds more have been sidelined by a shortage of fresh gun barrels.

North Korean troop deployment to Russia was an initiative from Pyongyang, not the Kremlin. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin quickly endorsed it, according to The New York Times. The agency notes that when North Korean troops began arriving in Russia this fall,

[JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF] U.S. intelligence agencies believe that North Korea's troop deployment to Russia was Pyongyang's idea, The New York Times reported Monday, although some Western officials thought Moscow had turned to the reclusive regime in ...

Ukraine's assessment of losses suffered by Pyongyang was higher than that of South Korea, which last week reported some 100 North Koreans killed with another 1,000 wounded in the Kursk region.