The suggestion to deploy North Korean troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine came from Pyongyang, not Moscow, U.S. intelligence sources told the New York Times, it reported on Dec. 23. While some Western officials initially viewed the arrival of North Korean soldiers in Russia as evidence of the Kremlin’s desperation,

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.”

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).

Ukrainian special forces have released several excerpts from a purported diary it said was found on a North Korean soldier killed in front-line fighting in Russia.

North Korea has supplied Russia with thousands of troops to fight against Ukraine, intelligence officials said, but old footage that has resurfaced on social media does not show the funeral of a general deployed by Pyongyang to lead its troops in the ongoing invasion.

John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, revealed that North Korean soldiers in Ukraine face harsh conditions, with some taking their lives out of fear for their families.

North Korean soldiers sent to aid Russia in its fight against Ukraine are dying in droves and some of them have even chosen suicide over surrender, according to officials. More than 1,000 North Korean soldiers were killed fighting in the Kursk region this past week — almost 10% of its deployment to Russia — after generals ordered a “human wave” attack,