While some Western officials initially viewed the arrival of North Korean soldiers in Russia as evidence of the Kremlin’s desperation, U.S. agencies now reportedly believe the idea was North Korea’s initiative,

A Russian cargo ship that Kyiv says was intended to collect weapons from military bases in Syria has sunk on route in the Mediterranean Sea.Officials in Moscow said two crew members are missing after an engine room explosion sank the Ursa Major between Spain and Algeria.

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.”

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.

"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.

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

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.

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.

[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 ...

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 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,