North Korea will send Russia another 150 short-range ballistic missiles this year. Pyongyang is also likely to transfer additional howitzers, as the head of Ukraine's intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said in an interview with The War Zone.

There is mounting evidence from the battlefield, intelligence reports and testimonies of defectors that some North Korean soldiers are resorting to extreme measures as they support Russia's three-year war with Ukraine.

North Korean troops have been deployed to bolster Russian forces in the Kursk border region with Ukraine, where they are gaining battlefield experience despite initial heavy losses.

North Korea is “significantly benefiting” from its troops gaining battlefield experience fighting alongside Russian forces as it makes them more capable of waging war against rivals South Korea and Japan, a US official warned the UN.

Western officials have told the BBC that North Korean troops have already suffered nearly 40% casualties in the fighting in Russia's western Kursk region, in just three months. The officials, who spoke on grounds of anonymity,

Ukraine's military said 21 troops were killed and 40 injured in the operation in the Russian region where it is staging an incursion.

The Special Operations Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine published a report on the assault by North Korean soldiers on Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region. Intense fighting lasted several hours,

It will mostly be missile and artillery troops who typically operate hundreds of tubed and rocket artillery systems as well as the KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles Pyongyang has already provided Moscow,