North Korea to send reinforcements to Kursk region soon - New York Times

In particular, in the fall of last year, North Korea sent approximately 11,000 soldiers to assist Moscow's forces in the Kursk region in southern Russia, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces had reclaimed territory following an unexpected operation last summer. Since their first combat engagement in early December, about a third of the North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded, according to Ukrainian and American officials.

Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyi stated this week that North Korea's losses continue to grow, estimating that almost half of the deployed soldiers have been either wounded or killed. However, he warned that they were "highly motivated, well-trained" and "brave."

The North Korean Armed Forces, which number 1.2 million personnel, are among the largest standing armies in the world, and their involvement in the war marked a profound escalation in the nearly three-year-long war.

On Russian territory, the North Koreans were issued what one Pentagon official referred to as "pocket litter" - documents registering them as residents of Russia's Far East.

Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that one of the captured soldiers was found to have a fake military ID with the data of a real resident of Russian Tyva. Meanwhile, Ukrainian intelligence officials said that the documents used the identity of a real Russian citizen.

Even before North Korea sent troops to Russia, it was a major supporter of Moscow's military efforts. It had shipped millions of artillery shells to Moscow - which now account for about half of the ammunition Russia fires daily - and over 100 short-range ballistic missiles.